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| Posted: 17 May 2005 18:02 | ||
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United Press International
Thursday, May 5, 2005 BALTIMORE, May 04, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- An antibiotic in use for 30 years might help relieve brain and nervous system effects of the AIDS virus, U.S. researchers said. Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University found monkeys treated with the antibiotic minocycline had less brain damage and inflammation and less viral infection of in the central nervous system. Treatment with anti-retroviral medications can help control HIV infection elsewhere in the body, but the method can cause neurological problems, in part because Minocycline was formulated to cross the blood-brain barrier. HIV is the retrovirus that causes AIDS. "In people, anti-retroviral treatments do a great job of controlling HIV in blood, but most of the drugs don't cross the blood-brain barrier very well," says Christine Zink, professor of comparative medicine. "As a result, even though the infection seems to be controlled, it may still cause damage in the brain. And because people are living with HIV longer than ever, the prevalence of neurological damage is increasing. Currently, there's no drug to treat it directly." |
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