Quinolinic Acid May Have Role in AIDS Dementia Complex

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Quinolinic Acid May Have Role in AIDS Dementia Complex

Reuters Health Information Services (12/22/97)

Abstract: In the December issue of Neurology, researchers from Australia's St. Vincent's Hospital report that in vitro studies suggest that quinolinic acid--a neurotoxic tryptophan metabolite that is a byproduct of the kynurenine pathway--is involved in AIDS-related dementia and, therefore, neuroprotective methods may be effective in the treatment of the disease. After adding 6-Chloro-D-tryptophan (6CDT)--a quinolinic acid biosynthesis inhibitor--to half of the test cultures from a patient with AIDS dementia, the doctors noted that 6CDT reduced the neurotoxicity of HIV-1 infected macrophage supernatants. Based on the data, the research team concluded that the kynurenine pathway may be important in AIDS -related dementia and that strategies to inhibit it may be effective against the disease.

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