Drugs that treat HIV cause premature ageing: Impact on Mitochondria
A new study published in Nature Genetics* has shown that a particular class of anti-retroviral drugs commonly used to treat HIV, can cause premature ageing.
The aging appears to be caused by damage to cells’ energy production units, called mitochondria.
Mitochondria damage has also been linked to heart disease, dementia, and problems such as neuropathy, a nerve condition that causes pain, numbness, or tingling in the extremities. This could be why some HIV-positive individuals taking antiretrovirals have symptoms of these diseases at an early age.
The authors of the study are currently investigating how to repair or prevent the damage caused by the antiretrovirals. Prof. Chinnery noted that exercise has been beneficial to HIV-negative people with these mitochondrial diseases and may help people who have taken nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) as well.
During the 2nd World Congress on Targeting Mitochondria 2011, which will be held in Berlin in October 20-21, the Scientific Committee will allocate some time to discuss about this study and also more studies about Recent Advances on Mitochondrial dysfunctions in chronic diseases and Pathologies.
For more information about the conference, please visit www.targeting-mitochondria.com
Source: Mitochondrial aging is accelerated by anti-retroviral therapy through the clonal expansion of mtDNA mutations by P. Chinnery and al.; Nature Genetics (2011), doi:10.1038/ng.863
