The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7254 p854
21 June 2003

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HAART may restore pre-HIV lipid levels

The increases in lipid levels observed during treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in patients infected with HIV may be a return to levels seen before seroconversion, American doctors believe. Alterations in serum lipids have been widely reported in patients on HAART. However, no study has yet investigated lipid levels before patients were infected with HIV.

Researchers looked at 50 men receiving HAART for whom pre-seroconversion blood samples were available. After HIV infection, but before initiation of HAART, average cholesterol levels dropped.

Once HAART was started, total and LDL cholesterol levels began to rise again. After three years on HAART there was an average 20mg/dL increase from baseline for total cholesterol, a 1mg/dL drop in LDL and a 9mg/dL drop in average HDL. However, the changes in total cholesterol were consistent with that expected with ageing.

Lead author Sharon Riddler, of Pittsburgh University, cautions that further research is needed to confirm her group's data. She adds that, at the end of the study, the participants' average triglyceride levels were higher and HDL levels lower than those in similar aged men in the general population (JAMA 2003;289:2978).