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Published in the Bulletin of Experimental Treatments for AIDS December 1996 issue, by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

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AIDS Dementia Complex

by Mark Bowers

HIV is known to affect most if not all systems in the body. A member of the subfamily of retroviruses that causes a variety of neurological and immunological diseases, HIV has been found in the brain as early as 2 days after initial infection. A type of dementia usually referred to as AIDS dementia complex (ADC), but also known as HIV-1-associated dementia or HIV-associated cognitive/motor complex, has been estimated to affect up to one-third of adults and one-half of all children with AIDS.

It remains unclear exactly how and where HIV enters the brain. However, newly devised methods of measuring HIV in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that bathes the spinal cord and the brain may be predictive of the risk of developing ADC and may help gauge efforts to prevent or treat it. The availability of antiretroviral drugs from 2 new classes, protease inhibitors and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI), potentially increases the number of options for preventing and treating ADC. New and better understanding of how HIV causes disease in the brain opens the door for testing novel therapies, including anti-inflammatory drugs, antioxidants, cytokine regulators and calcium channel blockers.

It has been reported that reductions in viral load as measured by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and branched-chain DNA (bDNA) assays have led to decreases in the incidence of new opportunistic infections (OI) and in the total number of AIDS-related hospitalizations among individuals who use powerful combinations of antiretroviral drugs. Will there also be decreases in the number of people who develop dementia and related cognitive deficits, or will clinicians see more dementia because people with HIV are living longer? Is the brain a reservoir site where HIV persists, even while it is reduced to undetectable levels in the blood? What can be done now to prevent and treat ADC, and what remains to be done in the near future?


Dementia and its Symptoms

The term dementia is used by neurologists to describe a clinical syndrome composed of memory loss, decreased mental concentration and the loss of other intellectual functions because of progressive disease in the brain. There may be motor signs, such as weakness, lack of coordination and unsteady gait. Behavioral changes are most likely to be noticed by friends or family members, and may include apathy, personality changes and loss of libido. ADC is often characterized by depression, but depression alone is not enough to establish a diagnosis of ADC. Depression has a profound effect on survival and should be treated, whether it appears as part of the constellation of symptoms called ADC or alone.

The clinical course of ADC is variable. Some people experience only mild symptoms, while others progress rapidly. A scale that allows clinicians to stage ADC is provided below. The first symptoms to appear are often the most difficult to quantify: short-term memory loss and poor concentration may be attributed to stress, to prescription or recreational drug use, or to fatigue, but may also be early manifestations of ADC.

AIDS Dementia Complex Classification

  • Stage 0: Normal
  • Stage 0.5: Subclinical or Equivocal
    • Minimal or equivocal symptoms
    • Mild (soft) neurological signs
    • No impairment of work or activities of daily living (ADL)
  • Stage 1: Mild
    • Unequivocal intellectual or motor impairment
    • Able to do all but the most demanding work or ADL
  • Stage 2: Moderate
    • Cannot work or perform demanding ADL
    • Capable of self-care
    • Ambulatory, but may need a single prop
  • Stage 3: Severe
    • Major intellectual disability or
    • Cannot walk unassisted
  • Stage 4: End-Stage
    • Nearly vegetative
    • Rudimentary cognition
    • Para- or quadriplegic

Adapted from J Worley and R Price, Management of neurologic complications of HIV-1 infection and AIDS. In The Medical Management of AIDS, 3rd Edition. M Sande and P Volberding, editors. WB Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 1992.

Many AIDS-related OI, including toxoplasmosis, cryptococcal meningitis, cytomegalovirus (CMV) encephalitis and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) have symptoms similar to those caused by ADC. An accurate diagnosis based on neurological, cognitive and psychological evaluations can help sort out the underlying causes. Other scales have been proposed for staging ADC than the one presented above; the scale developed for minor cognitive/motor disorder is designed to capture and stage persons with early cognitive difficulties, and overlaps the first stage of the ADC scale. The point of creating the new scale was to draw attention to cognitive difficulties and to attempt to intervene early in the course of ADC.

HIV infection of the central nervous system (CNS) in children differs from the picture seen in adults. Children frequently fail to reach normal developmental milestones or achieve normal neurologic development. The effects of CNS involvement are seen early. However, among adults, AIDS dementia complex is principally a late manifestation of HIV infection, most frequently occurring in individuals with fewer than 200 CD4 cells/mm3. Nevertheless, early symptoms of ADC may arise at any time during HIV infection, and should be addressed when they arise. There are promising new treatments on the horizon, and the possibility of halting or reversing the progression of dementia is very real.


Diagnosis

A diagnosis of AIDS dementia complex is based on excluding other common causes of the symptoms seen. ADC is referred to as a subcortical dementia because it affects structures that lie under the surface of the brain, the cortex. In persons who have ADC, increased metabolism has been recorded from subcortical parts of the brain called the thalamus and the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia support muscular activities, including posture, balance and walking. Neurologists look for both direct and indirect evidence of dementia by a variety of diagnostic measures, including neurological, cognitive and psychological tests.

Lumbar punctures (spinal taps), in which a needle is inserted into the CSF surrounding the spinal cord, allow the withdrawal of a small amount of the fluid to test for the presence of active infections in addition to HIV, including Cryptococcus neoformans, Treponema pallidum (the organism that causes syphillis), CMV, Epstein-Barr virus, JC virus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. CSF removed by lumbar punctures may also provide valuable information about levels of HIV RNA and DNA. Researchers want to know if these levels change in response to antiviral therapy, and if the changes reflect successful therapy for ADC. Lumbar punctures are quite safe. The primary side effect is headache if the patient does not remain lying down long enough after the procedure.

Researchers have collected data about the amounts and distribution of beta-2 microglobulin and neopterin in CSF and the brain. Bruce Brew, MD, and colleagues at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, found a correlation between concentrations of beta-2 microglobulin and neopterin in CSF, CD4 cell counts and the development of ADC. A total of 35 participants with ADC stage 0.5 or without ADC and CD4 cell counts less than 200 cells/mm3 were evaluated in the study. Brew found that elevated concentrations of CSF beta-2 microglobulin and neopterin "are significant predictors of the risk of development of ADC."

Single photon emission computed tomographic (SPECT) cerebral perfusion scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans are useful tools for establishing ADC and ruling out other possible brain complications, such as CMV-associated CNS disease, toxoplasmosis, or subcortical lesions or processes. Abnormal glucose metabolism in patterns consistent with early or late ADC can be detected in most affected individuals by positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. Computerized tomography (CT scan) is useful for diagnosing toxoplasmosis, but is not helpful in establishing a diagnosis of ADC.

David Rottenberg, MD, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota used FDG-PET scans and compared blood samples from both HIV positive and HIV negative volunteers to expand clinical knowledge about hypermetabolism (high metabolism) of glucose in the areas where cellular abnormalities first appear in people with ADC and hypometabolism (low metabolism) in the cortex of people with more advanced ADC. The correlations were robust; now further testing of this experimental technology is needed to establish whether FDG-PET scans can predict progression of ADC or response to therapy.


How Does HIV Affect the Brain?

Neurologists are convinced that HIV infection in the brain is indirectly responsible for AIDS dementia complex. Accumulating evidence shows that many types of cells in the brain can be and are infected by HIV, but neurons themselves are not. Although HIV does not directly infect and kill neurons, neuronal death has been repeatedly associated with ADC. How then does HIV cause ADC?

Indirect killing of neurons by a toxic substance or substances released by HIV-infected cells is the likely explanation for the emergence of ADC. The cells that are infected in the CNS are microglia (relatives of macrophages), vascular endothelial cells that line the blood vessels of the brain, and astrocytes, cells that fill the spaces between neurons in the brain and provide support and insulation for neurons.

HIV infection of brain cells may cause collateral damage to neighboring neurons through the release of toxic chemical messengers called cytokines. Some of the cytokines that are produced abundantly by infected cells include tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), gamma and alpha interferon (IFN gamma and IFN alpha) and platelet activating factor (PAF). Nitric oxide (NO), a reactive nitrogen intermediate (free radical) that is reponsible for vasodilation (dilation of blood vessels), and metabolites such as arachidonic acid are also abundantly produced during gp120-induced inflammation. A general pattern of dysregulation accompanies clinical dementia.

The hypothesis that such substances lead to ADC can be tested by giving drugs that decrease levels of substances such as TNF alpha or PAF to patients with ADC and seeing whether they improve. Some drugs that are in clinical study for this purpose are the PAF inhibitor lexipatant (made by British Biotech for the treatment of pancreatitis, asthma and multiple sclerosis), and pentoxifylline (Trental), a potent TNF alpha inhibitor. A putative antioxidant, OPC 14,117, was studied by Karl Kieburtz, of the University of Rochester, and colleagues in 30 people with fewer than 245 CD4 cells/mm3 and some cognitive impairment. Results were not statistically significant, but there was a trend toward improvement in memory and motor speed for those who took OPC 14,117.

Neuronal damage may also be caused by the inflammation that results from overproduction of cytokines. Astrocytes that produce TNF alpha enter a feedback loop that causes them to continue to produce more and more astrocytes. The resulting astrogliosis (proliferation of astocytes) may be in part responsible for ADC, and contributes to neuron death and demyelination (loss of important insulation surrounding neurons). Astrocytes communicate with one another through what are called gap junctions, so damage that occurs as the result of the infection of one astrocyte can lead to damage at regions distant from the site of exposure to HIV.

Neuronal suicide (apoptosis, or programmed cell death) may be caused by free-floating gp120, part of the external envelope of HIV, in the CNS. Infected macrophages, monocytes and microglia all release gp120. An abundance of gp120 in the CNS triggers a disruption in the normal concentrations of extracellular substances such as glutamate and activates neural receptor channels called NMDA channels. Neurons have specialized channels that control the entry and exit of calcium (Ca), potassium (K) and sodium (Na) ions, which allow these cells to communicate with other cells through electrical polarization and depolarization. Opening a Ca channel for too long is fatal to a neuron.

The interactions between cells of the CNS create a finely balanced system that permits emotion, movement and thought. The system can be imbalanced by HIV infection of astrocytes, macrophages/microglia and T-cells in the CNS. Eventually, the changing microenvironment results in neurotoxicity that produces the cognitive, motor and behavioral changes associated with AIDS dementia complex.


Viral Load

Until recently, most researchers believed that HIV disease was characterized by a long period of clinical latency during which viral production was low. The development of sensitive viral load testing has allowed researchers to accurately quantify virus in the blood. How do HIV RNA levels in the CSF compare with plasma levels? Are elevated levels of HIV in the CSF or brain responsible for ADC?

Richard Price, MD, Chief of the Neurology Service at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH), and Silvija Staprans, PhD, Director of the Virology Laboratory at SFGH, want to learn the effects of protease inhibitors and NNRTI on viral load in the CSF and on the course of ADC. According to Price, the leading neuropathological hypothesis relates ADC to HIV infection in the brain. Aggressive use of antiretroviral drugs could help alleviate dementia in 2 ways: (1) the drugs get into the CNS to treat HIV infection, and/or (2) systemic viral load reduction and reconstitution of body-wide immunity have a positive influence on the brain as well.

The endothelial cells that line the capillaries of the brain are tightly linked to form a blood-brain barrier, which is selectively permeable to substances in the blood. Current scant data seem to indicate that protease inhibitors do not cross the blood-brain barrier. However, anecdotal reports suggest that those who do well systemically (those who achieve a pronounced decrease in viral burden in the blood) tend not to develop ADC, which supports hypothesis 2.

Price and Staprans first want to know if high levels of HIV in the CSF correspond with increased incidence of ADC. (Viral load in the CSF and in the brain may differ.) Price and Staprans feel that they are now in a position to learn much about the natural history of ADC, about prevention and treatment and about the rate at which resistance to protease inhibitors develops in the brain and CSF. They recently received University of California approval to conduct a series of lumbar punctures in individuals who are initiating combination antiretroviral therapy. Among the questions to be answered are:

  • how quickly does the level of virus in CSF respond to systemic therapy with protease inhibitors?

  • does viral load in CSF change proportionally with viral load in peripheral blood?

  • do CNS-penetrating drugs have a more profound effect than nonpenetrating drugs on HIV replication in the CSF?

Bruce Brew has looked at the CSF for evidence that higher levels of HIV RNA correlate with severity of ADC. He and his associates evaluated CSF from 26 volunteers, 10 of whom were diagnosed with stage 1 or stage 2 ADC and found good correlations. However, elevated levels of HIV RNA could also be associated with cryptococcal meningitis. (Possibly this increased HIV replication is due to immune activation because of a simultaneous infection.) BrewÕs findings suggest a place for the measurement of HIV RNA in diagnosing dementia, but a single measure of elevated viral load is not enough to distinguish ADC from other brain abnormalities.


Treatment and Prevention

Three current approaches to the treatment of ADC are:

  • to interfere with the production of HIV through the use of antiviral drug combinations in the expectation that systemic decreases in HIV viral load will lead to a decrease in the incidence of ADC;

  • to protect neurons from collateral damage by blocking the effects of dysregulated cytokines; and

  • to offset the neuronal damage caused by elevated concentrations of nitric oxide in the brain with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant drugs.

Although there is no approved therapy for ADC, AZT is the drug that has been most studied for its effects on ADC. AZT crosses the blood-brain barrier better than any other approved nucleoside analog drug. Richard Price points out that the evidence for an AZT effect on the development and course of ADC is strongest in children. There is some evidence that ADC-effective doses of AZT are much higher than those usually prescribed: 1,000-2,000 mg per day. According to Seth Hetherington, MD, a senior clinical researcher and pediatric infectious disease specialist at Glaxo Wellcome, a dose-response relationship for AZT is not well established. A study of 40 volunteers with diagnosed ADC (stages 1 or 2) showed definite improvements in neuropsychological testing scores after taking as much as 400 mg of AZT 5 times a day. However, a 30-person, open-label Italian study comparing 1,000 mg, 750 mg and 500 mg per day showed cognitive improvement in all participants taking AZT regardless of dose. Some progressed from stage 3 dementia to stage 1 or stage 0.5. Direct introduction of AZT into the CSF was studied in 8 people, of whom 5 showed definite improvement in ADC symptoms.

AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) 152, a study of AZT vs ddI vs the combination of AZT plus ddI in symptomatic HIV-infected children, found that the second most commonly reported clinical finding among children was neurologic deterioration. Hetherington argues that it is necessary to develop drugs with protective or therapeutic effects on the CNS with children as well as adults in mind.

CNS Penetration of Nucleoside Analog Drugs

(percentage of level found in serum)

AZT (Retrovir): 60%
ddI (Videx): 20%
ddC (Hivid): 20%
d4T (Zerit): 30-40%
3TC (Epivir): 10%

Other, newer antiretroviral drugs potentially could affect the course of ADC, either as prophylactics or as treatments. William Freimuth, MD, of Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, has shepherded the experimental NNRTI drug delavirdine through the development and approval process. Freimuth comments that early animal studies of delavirdine revealed that the concentration of the drug in brain tissue is 5-10 times greater than its concentration in the CSF. Penetration of delavirdine into the CSF is 0.4% of penetration in plasma, which is not impressively high. However, a pilot study of delavirdine for the treatment of ADC is ongoing, and an interim analysis is near. The related NNRTI drug atevirdine was studied in 10 patients with stage 1 or 2 ADC. Five participants finished the 12-week study, 4 of whom responded to atevirdine as measured by neurological and neuropsychological assessments. Two participants improved from stage 2 to stage 0, while the other 2 improved from stage 1 to stage 0.5. The recently approved NNRTI drug nevirapine (Viramune, made by Boehringer Ingelheim) was evaluated early for its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. As a class, NNRTI drugs hold some promise for the prevention and treatment of ADC, and should be evaluated appropriately.

Glaxo Wellcome is developing a new nucleoside analog drug, designated 1592U89 (or 1592), for the treatment of HIV disease. In Phase II testing it was determined that levels of 1592 in the CSF reach 20% of their levels in the blood an hour after an oral dose, then reach the same level of penetration as AZT. Phase III testing of 1592 includes plans to evaluate the effects of 1592 on 90 people with early signs of ADC. Study sites include the University of California in San Francisco, the University of California in San Diego, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Mount Sinai in New York and Washington University in St. Louis. In parallel with adult testing, pediatric trials will look at the effects of 1592 on neural development in children with HIV.

The new protease inhibitor in joint development by Vertex and Glaxo Wellcome, designated 141, showed initial high levels of penetration in the CNS of rats. As reported at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in New Orleans (September 15-18), penetration into the CSF of this drug in humans was only 1.3% of blood levels, which is not as impressive as the penetration of some NNRTI drugs. With all protease inhibitors, penetration to the brain is minimal.

Drugs that inhibit neuronal apoptosis may be potential therapies for ADC. Memantine has been shown to block the binding of gp120 to NMDA receptors; this drug will be studied for its effects on ADC by the ACTG. A study of the safety of memantine in people with HIV, lasting 13 weeks and offering $1,025 for completion of 32 visits, is being conducted by ViRx in San Francisco.

Another candidate for study is the familiar drug nitroglycerin, which potentially could protect neurons from the effects of overstimulation of NMDA receptors. The calcium channel blocker nimodipine (Nimotop, manufactured by Miles Pharmaceuticals) was found in recent clinical studies to be unsatisfactory in treating ADC. Another calcium channel blocker, verapamil, increases HIV replication in vitro, and therefore appears unsuitable for clinical study.

ACTG researchers are considering the anti-inflammatory corticosteroid hormone prednisone for treating ADC. However, cytokine blockers and anti-inflammatory drugs are expected to affect symptoms rather than the underlying cause of ADC.

Peptide T, a peptide made of 8 amino acids, has been shown to block gp120 binding to target neural cells in some clinical studies. Some reports have indicated that peptide T has led to improvements in neuropsychological performance in people with severe ADC. However, researchers at the Curatorium for Immunodeficiency in Munich, Germany, conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of peptide T in 128 volunteers, reported at the XI International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver in July. Volunteers received subcutaneous peptide T at 8.5 mg/day or placebo, and completed quality of life questionnaires. Contrary to earlier reports of a positive effect, there were no statistically significant effects of peptide T on quality of life, neuropsychological performance or painful neuropathy.


Current and Future Clinical Research

The direction of future research will be determined by how well researchers are able to find volunteers who have ADC. For the first time, researchers and HIV-infected individuals have access to powerful antiretroviral drug combinations that may affect the development of ADC (and other opportunistic infections). Will these drugs be powerful enough to prevent dementia in most HIV positive individuals, or will other interventions be necessary? Or will HIV disease be marked by continual cognitive and intellectual impairment as HIV positive people live longer, otherwise healthier lives?

The future of federally funded research on ADC is uncertain. Traditionally neglected by the HIV/AIDS research community, neurologic research was relegated to rare substudies or no studies at all by the ACTG, and received scant attention from the National Institute of Neurologic Disease and Stroke (NINDS). The Neurology AIDS Research Consortium (NARC) was created 2 years ago as a cooperative venture between NINDS and ACTG, and currently sponsors and conducts most research on ADC. Due for a funding review in late 1996, NARC must demonstrate the importance of including neurologic research in future plans for evaluating combinations of protease inhibitors, NNRTI and new nucleoside analog drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies play an important role as well. In the expectation that HIV resistance to currently approved drugs will develop rapidly, pharmaceutical companies continue pre-clinical evaluation of new drugs with new mechanisms. They should include in their criteria for development those drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Freimuth has suggested that Upjohn will evaluate future drugs for this ability. Lynn Smiley, MD, International Director of Antiretroviral Clinical Research at Glaxo Wellcome, points out that the new experimental drug 1592 was selected for development precisely because of its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain, a potential sequestered sanctuary site for HIV.

Silvija Staprans suggests that primate research might provide clues about the natural history of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection in the brain, and could answer questions about the effects of drugs on SIV and HIV replication. According to Staprans, "It is critical that we understand the longevity of HIV-infected cells in the central nervous system in order to better design rational therapeutic interventions for durable suppression or eradication of HIV. And it is important to understand whether the central nervous system is a focus for the development of drug-resistant virus."

Mark Bowers is Managing Editor of Treatment Publications at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

The author is indebted to Silvija Staprans, PhD, for independent editorial review of the content of this article.


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Page last updated 17 December 1996


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