Didanosine

At Didanosine it is a medicine that is used in the treatment of HIV infection. The active ingredient is one of the virus-inhibiting agents and serves to strengthen the immune system of HIV patients.

What is didanosine?

Didanosine generally strengthens the body's own defenses of HIV patients, inhibits the multiplication of the HI viruses and reduces their number in the blood, can prevent AIDS and in some cases even fight it.

Didanosine is not an acid-stable active ingredient, which is why it is destroyed by stomach acid. For this reason, didanosine is only administered as an enteric capsule or in conjunction with acid-binding agents. Didanosine itself is a so-called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) and, as an active ingredient precursor (prodrug), alone is not effective against viruses.

Pharmacological effect

Didanosine is only converted into the actual active ingredient in the patient's body, where it inhibits the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which suppresses the multiplication of the HI virus.

With the reduction in the number of viruses in the blood, the body's immune defense is also strengthened again. Since HIV is a very adaptable virus and thus quickly develops resistance to individual substances, the active ingredient is usually used in combination with other active ingredients in the treatment of HIV patients.

It is possible to use the active ingredient didanosine to fight AIDS or at least delay its onset. The disease cannot be cured with didanosine, but the quality of life can be improved and life expectancy increased.

Medical application & use

If the patient is hypersensitive to the active ingredient Didanosine, the agent must not be used. It should only be used after careful consideration of the risk and benefit by the attending physician in patients with HIV infection who have liver disease, enlarged liver or liver inflammation.

Patients must be closely monitored throughout treatment, especially overweight women. Patients with a malfunction in certain cell organelles (so-called mitochondria) must also be specially monitored. Caution should also be exercised in HIV patients who have or have had pancreatitis. If the liver or kidney function is impaired, the dose must be adjusted accordingly.

Trained doctors are then obliged to supervise the treatment if HIV patients are simultaneously infected with hepatitis B or hepatitis C viruses, as the treatment then harbors additional risks. During pregnancy, didanosine - like many other drugs - should only be prescribed after carefully weighing the risks and benefits.

However, animal experiments produced a damaging effect on the unborn child, although these experiments cannot be transferred to the human organism. Didanosine should therefore not be used in the first three months of pregnancy, as the risk of an increase in the lactic acid level in the blood during pregnancy is also increased. Therefore, pregnant women with an HIV infection should only be cared for by experienced doctors. In general, a woman who is infected with the HI virus will not breastfeed her newborn, because the virus gets into breast milk and is thus passed on to the child.

If a newborn is infected with the HI virus, it should not be treated with didanosine until after three months, as there is insufficient knowledge about its effects for babies under three months of age. From the age of three months, treatment with a dose that corresponds to the body weight or the body surface of the child, depending on the course of the disease, is possible. In the case of children in particular, it is important to ensure that the treatment is carried out with care and under medical supervision.

Risks & side effects

Didanosine As a remedy against the HIV virus and AIDS, it has side effects such as diarrhea, malaise, abdominal pain, headache, tiredness, nausea in connection with vomiting, hives and skin rashes, liver inflammation, jaundice, dry mouth, anemia, hair loss.

There are also other known side effects that may occur more or less frequently and vary from patient to patient. Especially in patients with AIDS, it is often difficult to distinguish between disease-related reactions and drug-related side effects.

Medicines that contain the active ingredient didanosine should be taken at least two hours after other medicines and meals in order not to reduce the absorption of the active ingredient. The attending physician knows which drugs must not be taken at the same time.