Administration of Fozivudine Tidoxil as a Single-Agent Therapeutic during Acute Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Does Not Alter Chronic Infection

Abstract: Initiating combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) during acute HIV infection has been correlated with decreased viral set point and improved lymphocyte function. However, the long term effects of single-agent therapy administered only during the acute stage of infection (interrupted treatment) remain largely uncharacterized. In this study we provide longitudinal data using the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) model for HIV infection. Infected cats were treated with a prophylactic single-agent therapy, Fozivudine tidoxil (FZD), for six weeks, starting one day before infection. The initial acute infection study, reported elsewhere, demonstrated a decrease in plasma- and cell-associated viremia at two weeks post-infection (PI) in FZD-treated cats as compared to placebo-treated cats. We hypothesized that this early alteration in plasma- and cell-associated viremia would alter the virus set point and ultimately affect the outcome of chronic infection. Here we provide data at one, two and three years PI for plasma- and/or cell-associated viremia, total lymphocyte counts and CD4:CD8 ratios. There was no difference in viremia or cell counts between treated and nontreated groups at all time points tested. Contrary to our hypothesis, these results suggest that treatment with a single agent anti-retroviral drug during acute lentivirus infection does not significantly alter viral load and immune function during the chronic, asymptomatic stage of infection.