Effect of the nucleoside analogs zidovudine, didanosine, stavudine, and lamivudine on the sense of taste

The purpose of this study was to investigate the taste properties of nucleo side analogs, which are among the current medications used to treat human i mmunodeficiency virus (EW) infection. Eighteen unmedicated HIV-positive sub jects and 41 healthy control subjects participated in threshold and suprath reshold experiments. All of the nucleoside medications tested were perceive d as predominantly bitter (along with other qualities such as metallic, med icinal, sour, astringent, and fooling). The nucleoside analog with the lowe st detection thresholds was zidovudine; the detection threshold was 1.47 mM for HIV-infected patients and 2.15 mM for control subjects. Detection thre sholds for lamivudine were 4.41 mM for HIV-infected patients and 4.36 mM fo r control subjects. Detection thresholds for stavudine were 6.39 mM for HIV -infected patients and 5.99 mM for control subjects. Detection thresholds f or didanosine were 14.29 mM for HIV-infected patients and 24.0 mM for contr ol subjects. The nucleoside analogs also modified the taste perception of K Cl and CaCl2. There were no significant differences between HN-infected sub jects and control subjects for detection threshold values for any of the dr ugs. However, HN-infected subjects rated lamivudine, zidovudine, and stavud ine as significantly more bitter than did the control subjects at concentra tions four times higher than their detection thresholds. This result was ri ot due to use of medications by HIV-infected subjects because none of the s ubjects (neither HIV-infected nor control) were taking medications. (C) Els evier Science Inc. 1999.