FINDING A ROLE FOR ZALCITABINE IN THE HAART ERA

Zalcitabine (ddC) is a nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhib itor with demonstrated clinical benefit in combination use. More wides pread use of zalcitabine has been limited by a number of factors inclu ding peripheral neuropathy and three times daily dosing. However, scre ening for the risk factors for peripheral neuropathy may enable a redu ction in the incidence of neuropathy to below 10%. Additionally, new d ata on the use of zalcitabine twice daily suggest, based on the long i ntracellular half-life of the active triphosphate, that this is feasib le. Additionally, while limited data exist for zalcitabine in true HAA RT combinations, data from small trials suggest a similar proportion o f responders to standard HAART regimens.