Esteban Martínez´s group
Description
Our group has been working in this field since 1996 focused on two topics of research:
- Efficacy and tolerability of antiretroviral therapy
- Epidemiology, prevention and management of non-AIDS events
These two topics are partially related since the long-term tolerability of antiretroviral therapy may have an impact on the incidence and management of non-AIDS events and the risk for or the development of non-AIDS events may require to modify antiretroviral therapy for reasons other than virological failure.
Efficacy and tolerability of antiretroviral therapy
Our group has been involved in pivotal studies from more than 15 years including strategic trials of potent antiretroviral agents with different third drugs such as ATLANTIC study, CD4- and HIV RNA-guided therapy trials, and different switching studies in virologically suppressed patients aimed to improve the convenience or tolerability of antiretroviral therapy. We have developed studies assessing incidence and risk factors for specific adverse effects of antiretroviral agents such as Preotease inhibitor-associated dyslipidemia, nevirapine-associated hypersensitivity, or raltegravir-associated creatin kinase elevations. Some clinical studies have been done in collaboration with other Spanish and international centres, and in many instances we have coordinated the study from our institution. We aim to simplify antiretroviral therapy further developing tools to guarantee virological efficacy and to personalise therapy minimising the risk for adverse events.
Epidemiology, prevention and management of non-AIDS events
Our group has been also involved in the epidemiology, prevention and management of non-AIDS events since these events gained increasing importance a few years ago. Together with members from the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) and also with other clinical research groups in Spain we have been involved in developing prevention and management guidelines and designing and participating into strategic studies aimed to decrease the risk of cardiovascular, kidney or bone disease in HIV-infected patients. We have created links with other research groups out of the field of HIV infection to better address these issues. We aim to know further the factors associated with a higher risk for developing non-AIDS events and to develop evidence-based strategies for their prevention and management.