Comparative Efficacy of Dolutegravir Regimens and Bictegravir Regimens for HIV Treatment: A Meta-Analysis

Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a retrovirus that can cause acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome, a severe deterioration of the immune system caused by HIV infection. Dolutegravir was the first second-generation integrase strand transfer inhibitor to be approved, and it differs from raltegravir and elvitegravir in that it has a stronger genetic barrier and a better resistance profile. Bictegravir is a novel integrase strand transfer inhibitor with a significant genetic barrier to HIV-1 resistance development. The present meta-analysis was conducted to compare the efficacy of combined regimens containing dolutegravir to other regimens containing bictegravir for HIV treatment. The present study showed that dolutegravir regimens were marginally more effective in treating HIV patients (cure rate =91.86%) than bictegravir regimens (cure rate= 91.21%) and the difference was significant (p value = 0.04). Previous studies showed that bicte-gravir caused fewer drug-related adverse events than dolutegravir and it is coformulated as a single-tablet regimen. So, bictegravir is a reasonable alternative to dolutegravir in HIV treatment regimens.