Pharmacokinetics of rifampin and isoniazid in tuberculosis-HIV-coinfected patients receiving nevirapine- or efavirenz-based antiretroviral treatment

Abstract

This is a substudy of the Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le Sida et les Hépatites Virales (ANRS) Comparison of Nevirapine and Efavirenz for the Treatment of HIV-TB Co-infected Patients (ANRS 12146-CARINEMO) trial, which assessed the pharmacokinetics of rifampin or isoniazid with or without the coadministration of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based HIV antiretroviral therapy in HIV-tuberculosis-coinfected patients in Mozambique. Thirty-eight patients on antituberculosis therapy based on rifampin and isoniazid participated in the substudy (57.9% males; median age, 33 years; median weight, 51.9 kg; median CD4(+) T cell count, 104 cells/μl; median HIV-1 RNA load, 5.5 log copies/ml). The daily doses of rifampin and isoniazid were 10 and 5 mg/kg of body weight, respectively. Twenty-one patients received 200 mg of nevirapine twice a day (b.i.d.), and 17 patients received 600 mg of efavirenz once a day (q.d.) in combination with lamivudine and stavudine from day 1 until the end of the study. Blood samples were collected at regular time-dosing intervals after morning administration of a fixed-dose combination of rifampin and isoniazid. When rifampin was administered alone, the median maximum concentration of drug in serum (Cmax) and the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) at steady state were 6.59 mg/liter (range, 2.70 to 14.07 mg/liter) and 27.69 mg · h/liter (range, 11.41 to 109.75 mg · h/liter), respectively. Concentrations remained unchanged when rifampin was coadministered with nevirapine or efavirenz. When isoniazid was administered alone, the median isoniazid Cmax and AUC at steady state were 5.08 mg/liter (range, 1.26 to 11.51 mg/liter) and 20.92 mg · h/liter (range, 7.73 to 56.95 mg · h/liter), respectively. Concentrations remained unchanged when isoniazid was coadministered with nevirapine; however, a 29% decrease in the isoniazid AUC was observed when isoniazid was combined with efavirenz. The pharmacokinetic parameters of rifampin and isoniazid when coadministered with nevirapine or efavirenz were not altered to a clinically significant extent in these severely immunosuppressed HIV-infected patients. Patients experienced favorable clinical outcomes. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT00495326.).

FIG 1

Study profile. #, one patient with undetectable rifampin levels at the second pharmacokinetic sampling was excluded from the analysis.

FIG 2

Mean ± standard deviation of plasma rifampin (A and B) and isoniazid (C and D) concentration-time profiles during the first 12 h of the 24-h dosing interval in the absence (closed squares and dotted lines) or the presence (closed triangles and solid lines) of nevirapine (A and C) or efavirenz (B and D).

FIG 3

Individual plasma concentrations of rifampin (top) and isoniazid (bottom) drawn 2 h (C2) postdosing before and after starting antiretroviral treatment with nevirapine (left) or efavirenz (right).