New Class Of Effective Anti-HIV Therapy Reported by Dr. Gulick and Colleagues
Roy M. "Trip" Gulick, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine in the Division of International Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and Director of the Cornell HIV Clinical Trials Unit, was the first author of the lead article in the October 2, 2008 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, describing the efficacy of maraviroc in later stage patients with a substantial history of previous antiretroviral treatment. Maraviroc, an antagonist of the CC chemokine receptor 5, represents a new class of antiretroviral agents. In contrast to other antiretroviral agents which inhibit viral function, maraviroc blocks an important host cellular immune function (the CCR5 receptor). Dr. Gulick, and his colleagues in the MOTIVATE 1 and MOTIVATE 2 international trials, demonstrated that maraviroc, as compared with placebo, resulted in significantly greater suppression of HIV-1 and greater increases in CD4 cell counts at 48 weeks in previously treated patients with R5 HIV-1 who were receiving optimized background therapy. An accompanying editorial by Dr. Raphael Dolin hailed the breakthrough as "a most welcome addition to the aramamentarium against the virus."