Inflammatory, procoagulant markers and HIV residual viremia in patients receiving protease inhibitor monotherapy or triple drug therapy: a cross-sectional study

Background: Protease inhibitor monotherapy is associated with more frequent episodes of viral rebounds above 50 copies/mL than triple therapy. Objective: To evaluate if, compared to triple-drug therapy, protease inhibitor monotherapy is associated with increased levels of inflammatory/procoagulant markers and more frequent plasma residual viremia detection. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we included patients treated for >= 1 year with darunavir/ritonavir or lopinavir/ritonavir as monotherapy (n = 72) or with two nucleos(t) ides (n = 74). All samples were tested for CRP, IL-6, fibrinogen and D-dimer. Residual viremia was determined using an ultrasensitive qualitative nested-PCR of the HIV pol gene with a limit of detection of 1 copy of HIV-RNA. Results: We found no differences in levels of inflammatory/procoagulant markers or in the proportion of patients with plasma residual viremia detection by treatment group. Conclusion: The long-term treatment with protease inhibitor monotherapy in the setting of routine clinical practice is not associated with a higher prevalence of plasma residual viremia or more elevated inflammatory/procoagulant markers levels than triple drug therapy.