Lamivudine plus tenofovir versus lamivudine plus adefovir for the treatment of hepatitis B virus in HIV-coinfected patients, starting antiretroviral therapy

Abstract

Background: Combination of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), lamivudine (3TC) and efavirenz (EFV) is preferred in the treatment of HIV/hepatitis B virus (HBV) coinfection. We postulated that a HBV active nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitor/nucleotide RT inhibitor backbone of adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) +3TC would be as effective as TDF +3TC for the Indian population.

Objective: ADV + 3TC could be an alternative option for these HIV/HBV coinfected individuals, preserving the dually active TDF + 3TC as second-line nucleoside backbone following failure of the first-line ART.

Materials and methods: This randomised control trial (CTRI/2012/03/002471) was carried out at the ART Centre of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, India. Seventy-eight (39 on each arm) treatment-naïve HIV/HBV coinfected patients were randomised to receive either the combination of lamivudine + tenofovir + EFV or lamivudine + adefovir + zidovudine + EFV and followed up for 120 weeks.

Results: Median age of the study participants was 36 years (21-62), majority were male (61/78; 78.2%) and heterosexually (39/78; 50%) infected. Baseline characteristics were identical in both arms. There was no statistically significant difference in median aspartate aminotransferase (37 vs. 29.5 U/L), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (36 vs. 34.5 U/L), ALT normalisation rate (80 vs. 70%), AST to platelet ratio index (0.45 vs. 0.33), CD4 count (508 vs. 427 cells/mm³), HBV DNA suppression (81.8 vs. 70%), hepatitis B e antigen loss (9 vs. 5%), hepatitis B surface antigen seroclearance rate (6.06 vs. 18.75%) and death (3 vs. 3) at 120 weeks between TDF (n = 33) and ADV (n = 32), respectively.

Conclusions: Adefovir plus lamivudine is an effective alternative of tenofovir plus lamivudine in long-term HBV treatment outcome in HIV/HBV coinfected patients.

Keywords: Adefovir; HIV/hepatitis B virus coinfection; anti-retroviral therapy; lamivudine; tenofovir.