Efavirenz Causes Oxidative Stress, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, and Autophagy in Endothelial Cells

The non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor efavirenz is a widely prescribed antiretroviral drug used in combined antiretroviral therapy. Despite being an essential and life-saving medication, the required lifelong use of HIV drugs has been associated with a variety of adverse effects, including disturbances in lipid metabolism and increased cardiovascular risk. Efavirenz belongs to those HIV drugs for which cardiovascular and endothelial dysfunctions have been reported. It is here shown that elevated concentrations of efavirenz can inhibit endothelial meshwork formation on extracellular matrix gels by normal and immortalized human umbilical vein cells. This inhibition was associated with an increase in oxidative stress markers, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress markers, and autophagy. Induction of ER stress occurred at pharmacologically relevant concentrations of efavirenz and resulted in reduced proliferation and cell viability of endothelial cells, which worsened in the presence of elevated efavirenz concentrations. In combination with the HIV protease inhibitor nelfinavir, both oxidative stress and ER stress became elevated in endothelial cells. These data indicate that pharmacologically relevant concentrations of efavirenz can impair cell viability of endothelial cells and that these effects may be aggravated by either elevated concentrations of efavirenz or by a combined use of efavirenz with other oxidative stress-inducing medications.