Antiretroviral therapy exposure and insulin resistance in the Women's Interagency HIV study
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship, Activity Prediction, and Molecular Dynamics of Non-nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors
Published on: May 9, 2025
Phyllis C Tien1, Michael F E Schneider, Stephen R Cole
1Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA. ptien@ucsf.edu
Background:
Evidence suggesting an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in HIV-infected individuals has heightened the need to understand the relation of HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy use, and non-HIV-related factors with insulin resistance (IR).
Methods:
Prospective study of 1614 HIV-infected and 604 HIV-uninfected participants from the Women's Interagency HIV Study between October 2000 and March 2007. Homeostasis model assessment (HOMA)-estimated IR at 11,019 semiannual visits.
Results:
HIV-infected women reporting highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) had higher median HOMA than HIV-uninfected women {1.20 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11 to 1.30] times higher for those reporting protease inhibitor-containing HAART; 1.10 (95% CI: 1.01 to 1.20) times higher for those reporting non-protease inhibitor-containing HAART}. Among HIV-infected, cumulative exposure to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) of > 3 years was associated with HOMA 1.13 (95% CI: 1.02 to 1.25) times higher than the HOMA without any cumulative NRTI exposure. Cumulative exposure to the NRTI stavudine of > 1 year was associated with HOMA 1.15 (95% CI: 1.05 to 1.27) times higher than the HOMA without any cumulative stavudine use. Family history of diabetes, hepatitis C virus seropositivity, higher body mass index, or reporting menopause was associated with higher HOMA. CINCLUSIONS: Longer cumulative exposure to NRTI; in particular, stavudine is associated with greater IR in HIV-infected women.
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