Tenofovir alafenamide promotes weight gain and impairs fatty acid metabolism-related signaling pathways in visceral fat tissue compared to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate
Dulion B., Olali AZ., Patel N., Virdi AK., Naqib A., Wallace J.
Animal Study, published in Antiviral Res (2025) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
- Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
- Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
- Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
- Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
- Emerging · Emerging topic under active research
This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.
- Study type
- Animal Study
- Journal
- Antiviral Res (2025)
- Reported sample size
- —
- Source database
- Europe PMC
- PMID
- 40154925
- PMCID
- PMC12045057
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.antiviral.2025.106151
- Citations
- 4
Abstract (original English)
Modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) is associated with rapid weight gain, which appears to be antiretroviral-specific. Tenofovir is a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor commonly employed as a backbone in many ART formulations. Tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) has been associated with significant weight gain in people living with HIV (PLWH) initiating ART. Interestingly, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), has no impact on weight or may even be weight suppressive. The current study compared the impact of two tenofovir-based ART formulations on weight and adipose tissue. We utilized a humanized mouse model of HIV-infection and administered two clinically relevant ART combinations TAF/dolutegravir (DTG)/emtricitabine (FTC) and TDF/DTG/FTC. As expected, female mice treated with TAF/DTG/FTC had the greatest weight gain and fat accumulation, as measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). As ART-induced accumulation of visceral adipose tissue is linked to mortality, we isolated visceral adipose tissue for targeted (qPCR) and non-targeted (RNAseq) gene expression. Mice treated with TAF/DTG/FTC had increased expression of adipocyte differentiation related genes, leptin and PPAR-γ. RNAseq revealed that while the expression patterns for both TAF/DTG/FTC and TDF/DTG/FTC treated mice were similar, there were key differences. Specifically, KEGG pathway analysis indicated that TAF
What this study does not prove
- • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
- • This is preclinical work; animal or laboratory results cannot be applied to humans.
Evidence level
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
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