Dolutegravir-based therapy leads to fewer failures in adolescents says study

Phase-III results of the multi-country ODYSSEY study have shown that dolutegravir (DTG) based therapy, used in Line 1 and Line 2 regimens, leads to fewer treatment failures than other drug combinations. The results were published in IDSE magazine. 

ODYSSEY involved 707 children and adolescents from Germany, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Uganda, Great Britain and Zimbabwe. Over 22 months, 350 of the participants received DTG therapy, and the remaining 357 received standard treatment (a combination of 3-4 ARV drugs). Both groups included participants who had not previously been treated for HIV, as well as those who had ineffective previous treatment.

The results of the study showed that 47 patients from the DTG group (13%) and 75 patients from the standard therapy group (21%) faced clinical treatment failure. In addition, adolescents who received DTG had significantly fewer cases of serious drug resistance mutations.

“These results show that dolutegravir is superior in terms of preventing children from developing treatment failure,” said lead author Anna Turkova, MD, a research clinician at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL and consultant paediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London.

According to experts, this study provided sufficient evidence to update the WHO manual, as well as to increase access to DTG for children living with HIV. However, it is necessary to conduct additional research on the use of DTG in paediatrics to study an potential psychiatric side effects.