Coming therapies: amprenavir.

Area of Science:

• Antiviral drug development
• HIV/AIDS therapeutics
• Protease inhibitor pharmacology

Background:

• Amprenavir is a novel peptidomimetic HIV protease inhibitor.
• It features a convenient twice-daily dosing schedule, usable with or without food.
• This offers an advantage over some other protease inhibitors (PIs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate amprenavir as a component of combination HIV therapy.
• To assess its utility in salvage therapy for patients with treatment-experienced HIV.
• To review current clinical evidence on amprenavir's tolerability and potential side effects.

Main Methods:

• Review of clinical trial data and pharmacological studies on amprenavir.
• Analysis of cross-resistance patterns with other HIV protease inhibitors.
• Assessment of reported adverse events and tolerability profiles.

Main Results:

• Amprenavir demonstrates promising initial results in combination with nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs).
• It shows potential for salvage therapy due to limited cross-resistance with nelfinavir, indinavir, and saquinavir.
• Amprenavir-resistant strains exhibit cross-resistance with ritonavir.
• Clinical evidence suggests amprenavir is generally well-tolerated.

Conclusions:

• Amprenavir presents a convenient and potentially effective option for HIV treatment, including salvage regimens.
• Its efficacy in combination therapy warrants further investigation.
• More data is required to understand amprenavir's impact on lipodystrophy and lipid metabolism.