       Document 0437
 DOCN  M9640437
 TI    Plasma concentration of cytokine antagonists in patients with HIV
       infection.
 DT    9604
 AU    Catania A; Manfredi MG; Airaghi L; Vivirito MC; Capetti A; Milazzo F;
       Lipton JM; Zanussi C; First Medical Clinic, University of Milan, Italy.
 SO    Neuroimmunomodulation. 1994 Jan;1(1):42-9. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/96053011
 AB    There is increasing evidence that cytokines contribute to the
       immunopathogenesis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. It
       may be, therefore, that compensatory rises in circulating cytokine
       antagonists also occur in HIV infection and that such changes mark
       disease progression. To test this idea, plasma concentrations of the
       cytokine antagonists alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH),
       interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), and soluble tumor necrosis
       factor receptor (sTNFr) were measured in patients of different Centers
       for Disease Control (CDC) categories of HIV infection and in
       seronegative controls. Plasma levels of all these cytokine antagonists
       were higher in HIV-infected patients. IL-1ra and sTNFr concentrations
       were correlated with indicators of disease activity: positively with
       plasma neopterin and negatively with CD4+ T lymphocyte counts. alpha-MSH
       and sTNF r were greater in CDC groups III and IV, whereas IL-1ra was
       elevated only in the latter group. Because cytokines activate the
       hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and adrenal steroids inhibit
       cytokine production, we measured circulating adrenocorticotropic hormone
       (ACTH) and cortisol in HIV-infected patients and investigated relations
       among these hormones, cytokine antagonists, and markers of disease
       progression. It appears that these physiological modulators of cytokine
       activity are not closely linked to sTNFr, IL-1ra and alpha-MSH: there
       were no significant correlations between plasma concentrations of ACTH
       or cortisol and those of cytokine antagonists, nor were there
       correlations between hormones and markers of disease progression such as
       neopterin or CD4+ T cell counts. It is notable that severe adrenal
       insufficiency was extremely rare (3%) in HIV-infected patients; it was
       confined to the AIDS group and was consistently secondary to ACTH
       deficiency.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 DE    alpha-MSH/*BLOOD  Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/*METABOLISM  Adult
       Corticotropin/BLOOD  Cytokines/*ANTAGONISTS & INHIB  Female  Human  *HIV
       Interleukin-1/*BLOOD  Male  Middle Age  Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
       Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.  Tumor Necrosis Factor/METABOLISM  JOURNAL
       ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).

