Morphine Can Protect The Brains Of People Suffering From HIV Infection

Morphine Can Protect The Brains Of People Suffering From HIV Infection.
The anaesthetic morphine may domestic protect against HIV-associated dementia, says a experimental study. Georgetown University Medical Center researchers found that morphine protected rat neurons from HIV toxicity, a idea that could lead to the development of new drugs to treat hoi polloi with HIV-related dementia, which causes depression, anxiety and physical and mental problems.

So "We feel that morphine may be neuroprotective in a subset of people infected with HIV," lead investigator Italo Mocchetti, a professor of neuroscience, said in a Georgetown newscast release. He and his colleagues conducted the con because they knew that some people with HIV who are heroin users never develop HIV brain dementia. Morphine is comparable to heroin.

In their tests on rats, the researchers found that morphine triggers brain cells called astrocytes to initiate a protein called CCL5, which activates factors that suppress HIV infection in insusceptible cells. CCL5 "is known to be important in blood, but we didn't know it is secreted in the brain. Our assumption is that it is in the brain to prevent neurons from dying".

The study was to be presented at the annual tryst of the Society of NeuroImmune Pharmacology, April 13 to 17 in Manhattan Beach, Calif. "Ideally, we can use this message to develop a morphine-like compound that does not have the typical dependency and tolerance issues that morphine has".

Since the shy of the AIDS epidemic more than two decades ago, doctors, caregivers and patients themselves have observed that some subjects with the disease experience declines in brain function and movement skills as well as bantam or sudden shifts in behavior and mood. These are symptoms of a neurological disorder called HIV-Associated Dementia (HAD) or AIDS Dementia Complex.

The syndrome a lot appears in later stages of AIDS. It is usually—although not always—associated with both an grow in viral load, which is the amount of HIV found in the blood, and a fire in the number of disease-fighting blood cells known as CD4 cells. Experts find credible this group of symptoms occurs as a result of HIV infection of the brain, damaging the central agitated system, and in some cases peripheral nerves as well.

There is no "typical" course of the ailment. Sometimes it remains less mild; other times it may be severe or progress rapidly. Some people experience only cognitive disturbances or attitude shifts, while others struggle with a combination of mental, motor and behavior changes. How much these changes shake up a person's day-to-day life differs from one individual to the next and from one stage of the disorder to another.

In part because it varies so much from person to person, HAD is one of the most poorly understood aspects of HIV disease natural-breast-success.club. However, since the crowd coping with HIV often need to take many medications on a complicated timetable, support a regular schedule of doctors' appointments, keep track of paperwork for insurance and other benefits, and bring off additional tasks that demand significant organizational and cognitive skills, a diagnosis of HAD can acquaint with obstacles to their ability to maintain control over their lives and their health, and a challenge to caregivers, partners and others who want to help.