Effects of Korean Red Ginseng combination therapy on HIV-infected patients treated with integrase strand transfer inhibitors

Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) combined with antiretroviral therapy (ART) has shown benefits in the treatment of HIV-1-infected patients. Current guidelines recommend regimens containing integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) as first-line treatment for these patients. The present study assessed the duration of effectiveness of ginseng combination therapy (GCT) in patients receiving INSTIs. This study included 58 HIV-1-infected patients previously untreated with monotherapy or two-drug combination therapy. Patients in the GCT (n = 26) group received ART plus KRG for 164 ± 64 months, whereas patients in the control (n = 32) group received ART alone for 128 ± 49 months. Subsequently, patients in these two groups received INSTI for 81 ± 36 months and 68 ± 26 months, respectively. Before INSTI treatment, only one drug resistance mutation (DRM) was observed in the GCT group, compared with an overall resistance rate of 44.4 % in the control group (P