HEART ‘WONDER DRUG’ MAY ALSO SLOW HIV by Martin Flynn
Research from Madrid suggests drugs commonly used to treat high cholesterol may also fight HIV. Statins, the wonder drug of the last year for reducing the incidence of heart disease around the world, has now been found to lower levels of HIV in people living with the virus.
Writing in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Dr Gustavo del Real, of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, found levels of HIV dropped in patients taking statins but rose when they stopped.
Statins appeared to stop HIV from infecting healthy cells, he suggested, and the drugs may become a new and cheap weapon against the disease.
“The data suggests statins can inhibit HIV replication in chronically infected individuals and support future clinical studies of statins as possible antiretroviral agents,” the study said.
Professor Brain Gazzard, director of HIV research at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, agreed that statins interfered with the ability of HIV to get into the cell but said more research was needed.
“Whether or not that translates into a potential treatment remains to be seen. But these findings are interesting,” he added.
Meanwhile, a team of researchers from the US Department of Agriculture say blueberries could provide an alternative way to lower cholesterol.
Dr Agnes Rimando found a compound in the fruit acted as an antioxidant and reduced levels of the harmful form of cholesterol (low density lipoprotein or LDL) in rodents. Similar antioxidants have also been found in grapes and red wine.
But the British Heart Foundation said it was important to remember that regular physical activity combined with a diet high in fruit and vegetables and low in saturated fat was still the best way to combat high cholesterol and reduce risk of heart disease.
A little wine for thy stomach’s (and bones’) sake...
Regular readers of this column will recall that the one sensible quote from St Paul is his advice to drink ‘A little wine for thy stomach’s sake’. Now researchers from London’s St Thomas’ Hospital have found that moderate alcohol consumption can protect against brittle bone disease. The study found that moderate drinkers, who drank an average of eight alcohol units a week or about a glass of wine every day, have significantly denser bones than those who consumed very little.
A pill to reverse greying hair?
‘Grey hair is honourable, bald head abominable,’ to quote my dear departed mother. But now French cosmetics giant L’Oreal say they may be able to come up with a pill to restore hair to its natural colour. Scientists have identified a pair of genes which play a key role in turning hair grey and say the discovery could lead to new treatments to reverse hair greying. They have also found that pigment cells, melancytes, do survive after the hair has turned grey and this also raises hope that by reactivating these cells the hair whitening may be reversible. As my doctor tells me every visit, my various symptoms are not because of living with HIV or taking handfuls of medicines, but because we are an ageing population. So hope springs eternal, at least on the grey hair front.
Supplement helps HIV drugs nerve damage
A study from London’s Royal Free Hospital has found that using the dietary supplement acetyl carnitine can greatly reduce the damage to nerves believed to be caused by certain anti-HIV drugs.
Nerve damage to the hands and feet, known as peripheral neuropathy, has been blamed on certain antiretroviral drugs, such as d4T and ddI, by some doctors, but others insist that the severe pains may be due to the effects of HIV itself.
Researchers have speculated for some years about peripheral neuropathy, some believing that is caused by a deficiency of the vitamin B12 and others postulating about mitochondrial toxicity (destruction of the energy producing ‘power-houses’ present in cells).
The Royal Free researchers found that by giving acetyl carnitine for three years, three quarters of the patients reported an improvement in symptoms. Biopsies also found that the damaged nerves in the skin had actually grown back.
Although the supplement is not cheap, it is available over-the-counter at health food stores.
