Adherence and Clinical Correlates in Persons With HIV on TAF

Antiretroviral (ARV) drug exposure is directly linked to individual host factors, including age, weight, diet, and genetics. However, the main factor influencing long-term drug exposure is drug adherence. Adherence is a strong predictor of HIV treatment outcomes, but measuring adherence is difficult due to the inaccuracy of self-reporting and other commonly used monitoring methods. There is no gold-standard measure to monitor ARV exposure and adherence that has been implemented in clinical practice. Tenofovir diphosphate (TFV-DP), the phosphorylated anabolite of tenofovir (TFV), has distinct pharmacological characteristics that make it an ideal candidate for drug adherence and exposure monitoring. The long half-life of TFV-DP (\~17 days) in red blood cells (RBC), which are abundant in dried blood spots (DBS) are properties that make it well suited for monitoring average TFV exposure over time both from tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF). TFV-DP in DBS in persons with HIV (PWH) on TDF has been associated with viral suppression and is predictive of future viremia, even in patient who are virologically-suppressed. However, data on TFV-DP in DBS from TAF are lacking. To address this gap, this study will assess the association of TFV-DP in DBS from PWH on TAF with clinically-relevant virologic outcomes.