Antiretroviral drug may have effects on fetal development when used by pregnant women.
The drug, Atazanavir, a
protese inhibitor, is used with one or more other drugs as part of
anti-retroviral regimens used not only to treat HIV patients, but also to
reduce transmission of the disease.
The drug used to prevent the
transmission of HIV from mother to child may have small but significant effects
on infant development, researchers found in a new study.
Researchers at Harvard
University found in a study of HIV-positive pregnant women that one of several
drugs given to them could affect the development of their children, regardless
of whether they are born with the disease.
A previous study at Harvard
showed the drug may have some developmental effects, but researchers at the
time said the risk was low and did not advise changes to people's treatment
plans.
For the new study, published
in the journal AIDS, researchers recruited 167 women who received Atazanavir
during their pregnancy and 750 who did not, comparing the effects of the drug
based on developmental baselines when their children turned 1 year old.
For children whose mothers
were given the drug as part of anti-retroviral treatment at all, language and
social-emotional development scores were lower among children exposed to the
drug while in utero than those who were not. Language development scores were found
to be lower regardless of the trimester of exposure, though social-emotional
scores were only affected in children whose mothers started the drug in the
second or third trimester.
For cognitive, motor and
adaptive behavioral development, children whose mothers received the drug all
lagged behind children who were not exposed to it.
Researchers point out in the
study the small statistical differences do not have large clinical
implications, but are worth paying attention to because they "add another
risk to the constellation of existing biological and socio-environmental risk
factors to which these children are often exposed."
UPI.com
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