Question about the new meds that are about to come out

[JamieD]

Does anyone know of any research or predictions about the new medications in terms of mitochondrial toxicities, lipoatrophy/lipodystrophy, and neurological side effects?

[bobino]

Great question.  As someone who's already got lipo even though I've never taken any meds, I'd love to find out if these new drugs will be better or worse than the existing ones, lipo-wise.

Has anyone seen anything about the new drugs and lipo?

[blondbeauty]

Since starting meds my but fills more my jeans and my face looks much "fatter". I am more handsome and sexy if possible!

[Miss Philicia]

I'm quite sure that this was discussed somewhere in one of the recent Peter Staley video interviews from his trip to Sydney, but maybe I'm not remembering correctly.  Obviously they could only monitor these things for the short duration of the clinical trials but so far indications are that these concerns are minimal.  If you've not watched/listened to these interviews I'd recommend doing so -- they are located on the main poz.com web site in the "news" section.

http://www.poz.com/articles/lipoatrophy_sustiva_kaletra_761_12628.shtml

http://www.poz.com/articles/lipodystrophy_serostim_th9507_761_12627.shtml

(I think those are the two interviews but there may be more so fish around in here:  http://www.poz.com/archive/July_2007_761.shtml)

My personal experience with 1.5 years of Prezista show that my lipo has not worsened and my doctor indicated that some of his patients have regained lost fat in their face -- but only if they have grade 1 or 2 lipo (my doctor is the main one in Philadelphia for drug trials so he has a lot of patients he is/has observed on these new meds).  I have something more around a 3 so I did not regain anything -- though I have several friends who say that I have gained some.  But I've also seen worse lipo than mine (I think grade 4 is the most severe they label) and I have not gotten worse.  In fact, all of mine was lost 7 years ago so I'd say even my time on Kaletra may not have worsened it, and it's possible it was all from the older line meds I took in the 90's.

Frankly with ANYTHING such as this the effects are delayed.  I was on those older line meds in the 90's for a good five years before anything began to happen.