Pre-exposure prophylaxis

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Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is any medical or public health procedure used before exposure to the disease causing agent, its purpose is to prevent, rather than treat or cure a disease. An example would be if a doctor gave a medication used to treat a disease to a healthy person who is not thought to have that disease, but is at risk for contracting it. More specifically, this practice is common with people who are about to travel from an area without malaria to an area where malaria is a risk, and also it is being researched as a tool to prevent persons from contracting HIV.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis can also refer to the aggressive use of vaccination, for example in an attempt to prevent rabies in people such as laboratory workers who are high risk for being bitten by rabid animals.

PrEP for malaria

The CDC publishes recommendations for travels advising about the risk of contracting malaria in various countries.[1]

Some of the factors in deciding whether to use chemotherapy as malaria PrEP include the specific itinerary, length of trip, cost of drug, previous adverse reactions to antimalarials, drug allergies, and current medical history.[1]

PrEP for HIV

Most commonly, the term pre-exposure prophylaxis refers to an experimental HIV-prevention strategy that would use antiretrovirals to protect HIV-negative people from HIV infection. Along with AIDS vaccines and microbicides, PrEP is one of the HIV prevention strategies being tested in clinical trials today. With an estimated 39.5 million people living with HIV worldwide and 4.3 million new infections per year, many people are at risk for HIV infection through sexual transmission, and therefore preemptive measures must be taken to prevent further dissemination.[2] Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) provides a promising prevention strategy for further HIV transmission.

Studies of PrEP strategies in non-human primates have shown a reduced risk of infection among animals that receive ARVs prior to exposure to a simian form of HIV. A 2007 study at UT-Southwestern (Dallas) and the University of Minnesota showed PrEP to be effective in "humanized" laboratory mice.[3] Another rationale of PrEP comes from strategies to prevent mother-to-child transmission, which use ARVs given to the mother and the infant to help reduce the risk of transmission.[4]

PrEP Studies

The PrEP studies utilize the drug tenofovir or a tenofovir/emtricitabine combo (Truvada) that is delivered orally. Additionally, tenofovir can be used as a topical gel. PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection in four clinical trials while two trials showed no protective benefit. As of 2012, there are still two ongoing PrEP studies that have not published findings while additional open label extensions are currently under way.

Study Type of PrEP Study Population Findings
CAPRISA 004 Pericoital tenofovir gel South African females 39% reduction of HIV infection[5]
iPrEx Oral emtricitabine/tenofovir Men who have sex with men 42% reduction of HIV infection[6]
Partners PrEP Oral emtricitabine/tenofovir; oral tenofovir African heterosexual couples 73% and 62% reduction of infection[4]
TDF2 Oral emtricitabine/tenofovir Botswana heterosexual couples 63% reduction of infection[7]
FEM-PrEP Oral emtricitabine/tenofovir African females No reduction (study halted due to low adherence)
VOICE 003 Oral emtricitabine/tenofovir; oral tenofovir; vaginal tenofovir gel African females No reduction in oral tenofovir or vaginal gel arms [oral emtricitabine/tenofovir arm ongoing][7]
Bangkok Tenofovir Study Oral tenofovir Thai male injection drug users 48,9% reduction of infection[8]

Criticism of PrEP

There are several challenges to PrEP, from biomedical concerns (such as safety and effectiveness) to concerns of behavioral repercussions.

The PrEP studies have shown the drugs to be safe, with few side effects. Generally, minor side effects such as nausea or diarrhea resolve themselves within the first few months.[7] The level of effectiveness depends on the degree of adherence to the prescribed regimen. In iPrEx, persons with greater than 90% adherence to the drug had an efficacy of 68% protection versus persons with less than 50% adherence who had an efficacy of 16%.[7] Furthermore, the FEM-PrEP trial that was stopped early due to futility, found that the women's adherence to the drug was too low to find any effect on reducing HIV infections.[9]

Given mounting evidence of the effectiveness of PrEP among different populations when the drug is taken correctly, concern has turned more towards the practicalities of implementing PrEP as prevention. Since approximately 60% of people needing anti-retroviral therapy are not getting it, there are concerns that trying to deliver PrEP to many more people would be challenging.[7] It is also important to consider how programs might target those at highest risk of HIV exposure in order to provide PrEP.[4]

Additionally, concerns about behavioral repercussions are currently being addressed. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is conducting an extended safety trial in the U.S. to determine if men who have sex with men taking the drug are more likely to engage in riskier behaviors; preliminary results do not show any change in behavior.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kathrine R. Tan, Sonja Mali, Paul M. Arguin (2010). "Malaria Risk Information and Prophylaxis, by Country". Travelers' Health - Yellow Book. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 20 December 2010. 
  2. ↑ Author unknown (2006, November). Global AIDS Epidemic Continues to Grow. World Health Organization, Joint news release WHO/UNAIDS. Retrieved 8 November 2011 from http://www.who.int.
  3. ↑ Denton PW, Estes JD, Sun Z, et al. (January 2008). "Antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis prevents vaginal transmission of HIV-1 in humanized BLT mice". PLoS Med. 5 (1): e16. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050016. PMC 2194746. PMID 18198941. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Celum C, Baeten JM (February 2012). "Tenofovir-based pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention: evolving evidence". Curr. Opin. Infect. Dis. 25 (1): 51–7. doi:10.1097/QCO.0b013e32834ef5ef. PMC 3266126. PMID 22156901. 
  5. ↑ Andrei G, Lisco A, Vanpouille C, et al. (October 2011). "Topical tenofovir, a microbicide effective against HIV, inhibits herpes simplex virus-2 replication". Cell Host Microbe 10 (4): 379–89. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2011.08.015. PMID 22018238. 
  6. ↑ Grant RM, Lama JR, Anderson PL, et al. (December 2010). "Preexposure chemoprophylaxis for HIV prevention in men who have sex with men". N. Engl. J. Med. 363 (27): 2587–99. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1011205. PMC 3079639. PMID 21091279. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Celum, CL (December 2011). "HIV preexposure prophylaxis: new data and potential use.". Topics in antiviral medicine 19 (5): 181–5. PMID 22298887. 
  8. ↑ Choopanya K, Martin M, et al. (June 2013). "Antiretroviral prophylaxis for HIV infection in injecting drug users in Bangkok, Thailand (the Bangkok Tenofovir Study): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial". The Lancet 381 (9883): 2083–2090. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61127-7. PMID 23769234. 
  9. ↑ "Advocates' Network Update". AVAC. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  10. ↑ "CDC’s Clinical Studies of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention". CDC. August 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2009. 

External links

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