The NRTI Class of Generic AIDS Drugs Causes Premature Aging

Antiretroviral medications are the reason for which HIV is now no longer a death sentence, but a perfectly manageable chronic illness. With the use of antiretrovirals and other modern techniques, people living with HIV can have an excellent quality of life, avoid passing the virus onto their partners, and even have children who are born without HIV safely. Not all HIV drugs are equally good, however, and the older class that is now only used in developing nations has been shown to have some serious side effects. What do you need to know?

The NRTI Class of Drugs Used for Treating AIDS can Lead to Premature Aging

The nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitors class of drugs, also called RTIs, belong to the older generation of antiretroviral drugs which were developed by GSK and introduced in the late 1980s. They were a huge success then and helped in making HIV a manageable chronic disease as opposed to a death sentence. However now, British researchers, lead by Patrick Chinnery, have found that the NRTI class of drugs can lead to age related illnesses such as heart disease and dementia and can cause premature aging.
 

The study, published in the journal Nature Genetics reported that these side effects of NRTIs are due to damage to the mitochondria caused by the drugs, which are the energy suppliers of a cell. Taking these medications may cause errors in the DNA of the mitochondria during the replication of cells. As a result, a person taking NRTIs has as much mitochondrial damage within 10 years as would normally develop within a course of 20 to 30 years. Therefore, patients on NRTIs appear frail and show signs of heart disease and dementia.

These older HIV drugs, NRTIS, are no longer used in the developed world where they have been replaced by better but costlier alternative medications with fewer side effects. However, NRTIS are still being used in poor regions of the world like Africa and parts of Asia because owing to their low cost, they are sometimes the only option available.

 

Antiretroviral Drugs are the Mainstay of AIDS Treatment

Antiretroviral drugs are the mainstay of AIDS treatment. There are five types of antiretroviral drugs in use. The oldest are the Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors. The newer ones to be introduced include Fusion/ entry inhibitors and integrase inhibitors. These antiretroviral medicarions have comparatively fewer side effects but they are available only in resource rich countries. The poorer countries of the world are still dependant on the older generation of antiretroviral drugs, with many people not having consistent access to antiretroviral medications at all. Even though these drugs are not perfect, they do add an extra 10 to 20 years to the life of a HIV patient.

According to the latest United Nations data, about 37.7 million people had HIV — the virus that can cause AIDS in 2020, out of which 27.5 million patients were actively taking antiretroviral drugs, and the remaining patients not having consistent access to these life-saving medications. The NRTI class of drugs remains absolutely necessary, despite the side effects.

The researchers that led the study found that the damaged mitochondria in the muscle cells of the patients who had been treated with NRTIs as long as ten years ago. The newer AIDS drugs manufactured by companies like Gilead, Merck, Pfizer and GSK are unlikely to cause damage to the mitochondria. However, this type of damage takes time to become apparent. Therefore more research is needed before the newer generations of antiretroviral drugs are declared absolutely safe.