Insulin resistance induced by antiretroviral drugs: Current understanding of molecular mechanisms

Abstract

The increase in incidence of HIV infection continues to be a major public health problem across the world, but more especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has improved the prognosis of patients with AIDS, but it has also increased the incidence of various metabolic disorders, in particular insulin resistance accompanied by dyslipidaemia, hyperglycaemia and lipodystrophy. This is often accompanied by frank type 2 diabetes and increased mortality from cardiovascular disease. It is important to understand the mechanistic basis for these side-effects as the incidence of these is likely to increase as the rollout of antiretroviral drugs
continues.

Keywords: HIV protease inhibitors; insulin resistance; insulin signalling pathway