Dr. Steven L. Bloom and his colleagues from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas examined the transplacental pharmacokinetics of the nucleoside analogue lamivudine. Lamivudine appears to cross the placenta by simple diffusion and its transfer does not appear to be altered by zidovudine.
Specifically, Dr. Bloom and colleagues measured the ex vivo transfer of lamivudine, alone and in the presence of zidovudine, across nine placentas obtained from term, elective cesarean deliveries. They found that the overall clearance of was lamivudine was similar to that observed for other nucleotide analogs. The clearance index of lamivudine did not appear to be influenced by higher doses of lamivudine in the maternal circulation. Furthermore, the addition of zidovudine to the maternal perfusate did not affect the transfer of lamivudine.
Based on these results, they suggest that the combination of lamivudine and zidovudine "...may prove to be beneficial in the treatment of pregnancies complicated by HIV infection."
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