Intensified ART for Patients with Acute or Recent HIV Infection?

Starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) in early HIV infection may result in a smaller viral burden in the latently infected pool. To understand whether intensifying ART in early infection leads to improved virologic and immunologic outcomes, investigators (with partial industry funding) conducted an open-label, randomized trial comparing standard boosted protease inhibitor (PI) therapy (tenofovir/FTC + boosted atazanavir or darunavir) with the same regimen plus raltegravir and maraviroc.

Of 40 enrollees, 26 were randomized to five-drug ART and 14 to standard PI-boosted ART. Participants were predominantly men who have sex with men; the mean duration of infection was about 50 days. At baseline, the standard-therapy group had a slightly higher …