Miami Herald - July 26, 2001
Jennifer Miller

Zinc, a dietary supplement found in dairy products, fish and meat, could be a key element to fighting off diseases for drug users who carry HIV, the cause of AIDS, scientists say.

Camillus, a Miami-based group that provides healthcare services to the homeless, will screen and provide 210 participants out of a pool of 1,000.

"HIV and homelessness are intertwined," Camillus executive director Dale Simpson said. "Camillus has an objective to eliminate homelessness by addressing the cause."

FIU and Camillus are interviewing potential participants. Funded by a $3.5 million grant by the National Institutes of Health, the study will split the participants in two groups. One will take a zinc pill, the other a starch substitute. They will be monitored for 30 months.

Needed for growth and health, zinc is known to help ward off the common cold.

Without it, the body has trouble fighting off infections.

Those who carry HIV can have zinc levels as low as five milligrams per day, FIU immunologist Jerry Scott said.

The daily zinc requirement for men is at least 15 milligrams, for women 11 milligrams, he said.

Scott said those given zinc will get a 20-milligram dose per pill. Too much can be harmful over time, Scott said.

But the dose should be just enough to boost the patients' immune systems, he said.

Previous studies with zinc supplements and HIV patients show participants with low levels of zinc in their blood had few CD-4 cells -- a type of white blood cell targeted specifically by HIV, FIU principal investigator Dr. Marianna Baum said.

The studies show the supplements delayed HIV progression and decreased the amount of infections participants contracted, Baum said.

Although not intended as a cure, the treatment seeks to improve the quality of life for participants, she said.

Camillus plans to treat the participants and help them find jobs when the study is over, she said.

"It's going to be a tough study," Baum said. Patients will still receive anti-viral therapy; the supplements are just an added treatment, she said.

Baum, who has studied treating HIV with a mineral supplement called selenium, found in wheat grain, said FIU's is the largest study to date on zinc treatments.

But some researchers doubt whether the study is large enough.

"Two hundred ten is a decent size, but I think it's still going to be a little underpowered to make any definite recommendations," said Ben Cheng, director of Antiviral Advocacy for Project Inform. Cheng, of the San Francisco-based HIV treatment information group, said studies looking at preventions of other infections have had as many as 900 participants.

The researcher said other supplement treatments -- such as vitamin E, selenium and garlic -- sometimes decrease the effectiveness of HIV treatment drugs.

"It makes those drugs not as active against HIV," he said. "People's HIV levels can come up, and they develop resistance against those drugs."

To make sure the virus level in the blood has not increased, participants in the FIU study will be checked every three months, Baum said.

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