Efficacy of Oral Tenofovir Alafenamide/Emtricitabine Combination or Single-Agent Tenofovir Alafenamide Against Vaginal Simian Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Macaques.

BACKGROUND

Tenofovir alafenamide (TAF)-based regimens are being evaluated for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). We used a macaque model of repeated exposures to simian human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) to investigate whether TAF alone or the combination of TAF and emtricitabine (FTC) can prevent vaginal infection.

METHODS

Pigtail macaques were exposed vaginally to SHIV162p3 once a week for up to 15 weeks. Animals received clinical doses of FTC/TAF (n = 6) or TAF (n = 9) orally 24 hours before and 2 hours after each weekly virus exposure. Infection was compared with 21 untreated controls.

RESULTS

Five of the 6 animals in the FTC/TAF and 4 of the 9 animals in the TAF alone group were protected against infection (P = .001 and P = .049, respectively). The calculated efficacy of FTC/TAF and TAF was 91% (95% confidence interval [CI], 34.9%-98.8%) and 57.8% (95% CI, -8.7% to 83.6%), respectively. Infection in FTC/TAF but not TAF-treated macaques was delayed relative to controls (P = .005 and P = .114). Median tenofovir diphosphate (TFV-DP) levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were similar among infected and uninfected macaques receiving TAF PrEP (351 and 143 fmols/106 cells, respectively; P = .921).

CONCLUSIONS

Emtricitabine/TAF provided a level of protection against vaginal challenge similar to FTC/TFV disoproxil fumarate combination in the macaque model. Our results support the clinical evaluation of FTC/TAF for PrEP in women.