Nutritional supplementation increases rifampin exposure among tuberculosis patients coinfected with HIV

Abstract

Nutritional supplementation to tuberculosis (TB) patients has been associated with increased weight and reduced mortality, but its effect on the pharmacokinetics of first-line anti-TB drugs is unknown. A cohort of 100 TB patients (58 men; median age, 35 [interquartile range {IQR}, 29 to 40] years, and median body mass index [BMI], 18.8 [17.3 to 19.9] kg/m(2)) were randomized to receive nutritional supplementation during the intensive phase of TB treatment. Rifampin plasma concentrations were determined after 1 week and 2 months of treatment. The effects of nutritional supplementation, HIV, time on treatment, body weight, and SLCO1B1 rs4149032 genotype were examined using a population pharmacokinetic model. The model adjusted for body size via allometric scaling, accounted for clearance autoinduction, and detected an increase in bioavailability (+14%) for the patients in the continuation phase. HIV coinfection in patients not receiving the supplementation was found to decrease bioavailability by 21.8%, with a median maximum concentration of drug in serum (Cmax) and area under the concentration-time curve from 0 to 24 h (AUC0-24) of 5.6 μg/ml and 28.6 μg · h/ml, respectively. HIV-coinfected patients on nutritional supplementation achieved higher Cmax and AUC0-24 values of 6.4 μg/ml and 31.6 μg · h/ml, respectively, and only 13.3% bioavailability reduction. No effect of the SLCO1B1 rs4149032 genotype was observed. In conclusion, nutritional supplementation during the first 2 months of TB treatment reduces the decrease in rifampin exposure observed in HIV-coinfected patients but does not affect exposure in HIV-uninfected patients. If confirmed in other studies, the use of defined nutritional supplementation in HIV-coinfected TB patients should be considered in TB control programs. (This study has the controlled trial registration number ISRCTN 16552219.).

FIG 1

Flow chart for pulmonary TB-positive patients randomized to receive a nutritional supplement or no supplement and followed for the effects of nutritional supplementation on rifampin exposure at the end of the second month of the intensive phase of treatment.

FIG 2

Prediction-corrected visual predictive check (pcVPC) for rifampin concentration versus time, stratified by HIV status and use of nutritional supplementation. The circles represent the original data, and the dashed and solid lines are the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles of the original data, while the shaded areas are the corresponding 95% confidence intervals, as predicted by the model.