Twice-daily triple nucleoside intensification treatment with lamivudine-zidovudine plus abacavir sustains suppression of human immunodeficiency virustype 1: Results of the TARGET study

This open-label, multicenter, single-arm clinical trial assessed the 48-wee k efficacy of a twice-daily triple nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibit or regimen containing a lamivudine (150 mg)-zidovudine (300 mg) combination tablet (COM) and abacavir (ABC; 300 mg) in 87 antiretroviral therapy-exper ienced, protease inhibitor-naive patients infected with human immunodeficie ncy virus type 1 (HIV-1). At baseline, the median plasma HIV-1 RNA level wa s 3.10 log(10) copies/mL, and the median CD4 cell count was 506 cells/mm(3) . An intent-to-treat: observed analysis showed that, at weeks 24 and 48 of treatment, HIV-1 RNA level was <400 copies/mL in 48 (76%) of 63 and 45 (82% ) of 55 patients, respectively, and <50 copies/mL in 37 (59%) of 63 and 31 (56%) of 55 patients, respectively. Previous zidovudine or lamivudine use a nd presence at baseline of the M184V reverse-transcriptase mutation did not impact virologic response. Median CD4 cell counts were maintained above ba seline throughout the study. COM plus ABC was generally well tolerated.