Research paper
Vitamin A supplementation and human immunodeficiency virus load in injection drug users.
Study answer
What this study found
Vitamin A supplementation did not significantly reduce HIV load or improve CD4 lymphocyte count over 2 and 4 weeks, so the intervention was not effective for the main HIV-related outcomes. Log HIV load was similar between groups at baseline (P=.14) and at both follow-up visits (P=.17), and the mixed-model treatment effect on HIV load was not significant (b=.004, P=.96). CD4 counts also showed no between-group differences at baseline or follow-up. Plasma vitamin A levels increased relative to placebo, with a significant treatment effect at follow-up (P=.01), but this biochemical change did…
- Study & population
- Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in HIV-seropositive injection drug users enrolled in the ALIVE cohort in Baltimore, United States.
- Intervention
- Vitamin A was given as a single oral high dose of 60 mg retinol equivalent (200,000 IU) as retinol capsules.
- Key limitation
- Follow-up was very short, with only 2- and 4-week assessments after a single dose, so longer-term effects were not tested.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
The use of vitamin A therapy during human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is under clinical investigation, and vitamin A could potentially modulate HIV replication because the virus genome contains a retinoic acid response element. A randomize…