Current pharmacological and surgical treatments for Parkinson's disease offer symptomatic improvements to those suffering from this incurable degenerative neurological disorder, but none of these has convincingly shown effects on disease progression. Novel approaches based on gene therapy have several potential advantages over conventional treatment modalities. These could be used to provide more consistent dopamine supplementation, potentially providing superior symptomatic relief with fewer side effects. More radically, gene therapy could be used to correct the imbalances in basal ganglia circuitry associated with the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, or to preserve or restore dopaminergic neurons lost during the disease process itself. The latter neuroprotective approach is the most exciting, as it could theoretically be disease modifying rather than simply symptom alleviating. Gene therapy agents using these approaches are currently making the transition from the laboratory to the bedside. This paper summarises the theoretical approaches to gene therapy for Parkinson's disease and the findings of clinical trials in this rapidly changing field.
Dolutegravir and doravirine are individually safe and effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) components, but their combined use has not been studied in clinical trials and is not recommended in HIV treatment guidelines. We noted persons with HIV (PWH) receiving dolutegravir with doravirine at our Washington, DC, infectious disease clinic and undertook a service evaluation to understand why providers selected this ART, whether HIV virologic suppression was achieved and identify adverse effects of concomitant use. Case registry and prescriptions data identified 21 PWH receiving concomitant dolutegravir and doravirine with mean follow-up 576.1 days (range 413–751); frequent reasons for switching were multiple ART resistance (57.1%), proton pump inhibitor usage (28.6%) and renal failure (28.6%), with 52.4% switched from protease inhibitor or cobicistat-boosted regimens. Dolutegravir with doravirine alone was prescribed for 60%, and additional ART in 40%. During 12 months follow-up mean CD4 was 585.9 (baseline 570.7) with undetectable viral load in 77.8% (baseline 66.7%). No discontinuations for drug-related adverse events or virologic failure occurred. Dolutegravir with doravirine was well tolerated in small numbers of highly treatment experienced PWH at our clinic, achieving virologic suppression in most. Establishing the efficacy and safety of dolutegravir with doravirine for HIV treatment in randomized trials remains important.
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