Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors efavirenz and nevirapine inhibit cytochrome C oxidase in mouse brain regions.

The highly active antiretroviral therapy completely changed the clinical evolution of HIV infection, reducing the morbidity and mortality among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infected patients. Therefore, in the present study we evaluated the effect of chronic efavirenz (EFV) and nevirapine (NVP) administration on mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes activities (I, II, II-III, IV) in different brain regions of mice. Mice were orally administered via gavage with EFV 10 mg/kg, NVP 3.3 mg/kg or vehicle (controls) once a day for 36 days. We observed that the complex IV activity was inhibited by both EFV and NVP in cerebral cortex, striatum and hippocampus of mice, but not in cerebellum, as compared to control group. In contrast, chronic EFV and NVP administration did not alter complexes I, II and II-III. We speculated that brain energy metabolism dysfunction could be involved in the CNS-related adverse effects.