HIV Study May Help Prevent Multiple Sclerosis

Paris (AFP) - Scientists announced Monday that they have statistical evidence to support a new theory that AIDS virus infection may reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS). They found that English seropositive people are statistically less likely to develop MS than the general population. If further work confirms this link, this could be a breakthrough in the fight against multiple sclerosis, the scientists wrote in the journal Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

MS is a degenerative disease that affects the brain and central nervous system, in which the immune system itself begins to attack the insulating fat lining around the nerve fibers. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to muscle fatigue and spasms, cramps, nausea, depression and memory loss.

In 2011, doctors reported the case of a 26-year-old Australian man diagnosed with MS a few months after his HIV infection was confirmed. The symptoms of sclerosis disappeared completely after the patient began taking anti-HIV drugs and continued the medication for the next 12 years when his health was monitored.

This research followed a Danish study that tried to see if antiretroviral drugs could treat or slow the progression of MS, but the sample size was too small to reach a solid conclusion.

In the most recent study, an Australian team headed by Julian Gold, professor at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, analyzed a British database describing details of hospital treatment in England between 1999 and 2011.

During this period, more than 21, 000 people who were treated at the hospital had HIV. They were compared with a group of about 5.3 million people who did not have HIV and were treated for less serious problems and injuries. In the seropositive group, only seven people developed MS in the following years, far less than the expected 18, representing a risk reduction of almost two thirds.

The authors admitted the fragility of their study, as they had no idea, for example, whether patients with HIV took antiretroviral medication to suppress the virus. They speculate that MS may have slowed down because the immune system is back in control, although further work is needed to demonstrate whether the unexpected benefit is due to the virus or the medication used to fight it.

Via InAbstract