HAART Slows Brain Damage in AIDS Patients

AIDS researchers have found that treatment with a combination of antiviral agents (HAART, or highly active antiretroviral treatment) reduces brain damage, which can be monitored by measuring the concentration of the light subunit of neurofilament protein in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The light subunit of neurofilament (NFL) protein is a sensitive indicator of central nervous system axonal injury.

Investigators at Goteborg University (Sweden) used an ELISA test to measure NFL protein concentrations in archived CSF samples taken from 53 AIDS patients before and after initiation of HAART. Elevated levels of NFL protein were found in the CSF of 21 patients before treatment. After three months of HAART the NFL protein level had dropped to normal values in ten of these patients. After a year of HAART only four of the patients retained high NFL protein levels.

Initially, 32 of the patients had normal NFL protein levels. Of these, only one experienced an increase to the pathological range over the course of the study.

Further results published in the October 9, 2007, issue of Neurology revealed that HAART seemed to halt the neurodegenerative processes caused by HIV-1, as shown by the significant decrease in CSF NFL protein after treatment initiation.

"This type of treatment appears to halt the neurodegenerative process caused by HIV,” said senior author Dr. Asa Mellgren, professor of infectious diseases at Goteborg University. "This study confirms that neurofilament light protein serves as a useful marker in monitoring brain injury in people with HIV and in evaluating the effectiveness of HAART.”


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