Trial to Evaluate the Interest of a Reductive Anti Retroviral Strategy Using Dual Therapy Inspite of Triple Therapy

Study summary

What the protocol is testing.

In the early 2000s, the "TRILEGE©" study was realized to determine if the reductive anti retroviral strategy from an initial triple therapy (based on a protease inhibitor as the third agent) towards a dual therapy of nucleoside analogs (in particular the association of "zidovudine +lamivudine") for patients infected by HIV and stabilized for at least 3 months at a threshold value of 400 copies/ml, would allow to obtain a well-controlled plasmatic viral load, with an aim to reduce the long-term side effects of the treatment. The afore mentioned study showed that the reductive anti retroviral strategy was a failure. No study has as yet to revaluate this strategy, in particular in the current context of antiretroviral treatments. Indeed, modern nucleoside inhibitors (Kivexa®, Truvada®) have extended half-lives as well as a superior intrinsic power as compared to treatments proposed in the initial "TRILEGE©" study. Furthermore, the better quality of current triple therapy (as compared to that used 10 years ago) has lead to substantial viral reservoir reduction. Currently, a small number of patients is being successfully treated in the long-term (viral load \< 20 copies/ml) using nucleoside analog dual therapy. The particular characteristics of these patients have yet to be thoroughly investigated. The patients concerned were all treated prematurely before ever passing below 200 lymphocytes T CD4/mm3. It occurred that all these patients presented a low viral reservoir as measured by HIV DNA quantification (\< 2,7 log copies/106 PBMC). Therefore, by targeting patients who have (1) a strong immune restoration, (2) a low HIV DNA value and (3) a very good observance, the investigators emit the hypothesis that, reductive anti retroviral strategy that would consist in changing from a conventional triple therapy towards a Nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors dual therapy, could allow for durable control of viral replication with the concomitant benefice of reduced antiretroviral side effects and cost.