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Clinically proven
to reduce oxidative stress.
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Oxidative Stress and HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. HIV belongs to a class of viruses called retroviruses. Retroviruses are RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses, and in order to replicate (duplicate) they must make a DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) copy of their RNA. It is the DNA genes that allow the virus to replicate. Like all viruses, HIV can replicate only inside cells and once inside a cell, use an enzyme called reverse transcriptase to convert their RNA into DNA, which can be incorporated into the host cell's genes.
HIV destroys a certain kind of blood cell (CD4+ T cells) which is crucial to the normal function of the human immune system. In fact, loss of these cells in people with HIV is an extremely powerful predictor of the development of AIDS. Studies of thousands of people have revealed that most people infected with HIV carry the virus for years before enough damage is done to the immune system for AIDS to develop. However, sensitive tests have shown a strong connection between the amount of HIV in the blood and the decline in CD4+ T cells and the development of AIDS. Reducing the amount of virus in the body with anti-retroviral therapies can dramatically slow the destruction of a person’s immune system.
It has been proposed that oxidative stress is the common mediator of apoptotic (programmed) cell death in AIDS. HIV infection increases the oxidative stress process, and more importantly, antiretroviral combination therapy increases protein oxidation as well as the level of oxidative stress already present in HIV infection.
About HIV/AIDS
- At the end of 2003, over 1 million Americans were living with HIV/AIDS, with approximately 25% undiagnosed an unaware of their HIV infection
- Approximately 550,000 people died from the disease in 2005
- The disease affects more men than women and children in the U.S.
- The incidence of the disease is higher in White and Blacks than in other races/ethnicities
Risk Factors
- The most common risk factors are experienced by people who:
- Have shared injection drug needles and syringes
- Have sexual contact without a condom with an HIV-positive partner
- Have a sexually transmitted disease like chlamydia or gonorrhea
- Had a blood transfusion or received a blood clotting factor between 1978 and 1985
- Have sex with anyone who has done any of the above
Risk Reducers
Many of the above risk factors are behavioral in nature. Avoiding high-risk behaviors reduces or virtually eliminates the risk of HIV/AIDS infection.
The Studies
Oxidative protein damage and degradation in lymphocytes from patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus.
Piedimonte G, Guetard D, Magnani M, Corsi D, Picerno I, Spataro P, Kramer L, Montroni M, Silvestri G, Torres Roca JF, Montagnier L. J Infect Dis. 1997 Sep;176(3):655-64.
It has been proposed that oxidative stress is the common mediator of apoptotic cell death in AIDS. However, mechanistic relationships between oxidative damage and cell death are far from clear. It is reported here that the mitogenic activation of T lymphocytes from human immunodeficiency virus-positive subjects involves perturbation of redox balance, as indicated by the increase in hydroethydine intracellular oxidation and manganese superoxide dismutase adaptive induction. Principal molecular targets of oxidative injury are cellular proteins whose content in carbonyl groups increases together with a dramatic increase in degradation of newly synthesized proteins catalyzed by the ATP- and ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic system. The major consequence of this metabolic a | | |
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