Investigation of HIV-infected macrophage neurotoxin production from patients with AIDS dementia

The mechanism for AIDS dementia may involve the production of toxic cytokines. Since macrophage/microglia are the infected cells in the brain, we were interested in the production of some of the same cytokines by HIV-infected macrophages from patients with AIDS dementia. HIV-infected macrophages from 11 patients with AIDS dementia were cultured and evaluated for p24, cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA, and the production of interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and other neurotoxic factors. The percentage of HIV macrophage infectivity did not correlate with the severity of dementia nor did the presence of CMV. The production of IL-6 and an unidentified neurotoxin did not correlate with HIV macrophage infectivity suggesting that these soluble factors are strain specific. Production of TNFα by HIV-infected macrophages was relatively low (<1–35 pg/ml) and may not be a significant factor in toxicity.