Lamivudine
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Lamivudine (2',3'-dideoxy-3'-thiacytidine, commonly called 3TC) is a potent nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (nRTI).
It is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline with the brand names Epivir and Epivir-HBV.
Lamivudine has been used for treatment of chronic hepatitis B at a lower dose than for treatment of HIV. It improves the seroconversion of e-antigen positive hepatitis B and also improves histology staging of the liver. Long term use of lamivudine unfortunately leads to emergence of a resistant hepatitis B virus (YMDD) mutant. Despite this, lamivudine is still used widely as it is well tolerated.
Category
Antiretroviral
US Brand Names
EPIVIR®
FDA Package Insert
Description | Clinical Pharmacology | Microbiology | Indications and Usage | Contraindications | Warnings and Precautions | Adverse Reactions | Drug Interactions | Overdosage | Clinical Studies | Dosage and Administration | How Supplied | Labels and Packages
Mechanism of Action
Intracellularly, lamivudine is phosphorylated to its active 5′-triphosphate metabolite, lamivudine triphosphate (3TC-TP). The principal mode of action of 3TC-TP is the inhibition of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) via DNA chain termination after incorporation of the nucleotide analogue into viral DNA. 3TC-TP is a weak inhibitor of mammalian DNA polymerases α, β, and γ.