Highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) interruption leads to an increase in mitochondrial DNA content in HIV-infected children

Purpose of the study HIV infection itself and antiretroviral treatment, especially nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), cause mitochondrial impairment in HIVinfected patients, due to the inhibition of a-polymerase, the only enzyme responsible for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication. We investigated whether there are changes in mtDNA content after 1 year of treatment interruption in children.