+1-617-394-8820 contact@baybiosciences.com

HIV Wasting Syndrome

by | Jan 7, 2023 | Info | 0 comments

HIV Wasting Syndrome Overview

HIV wasting syndrome refers to a complication of the virus in which significant weight loss accompanies fever and weakness. It is a sign that HIV has caused severe damage to the immune system and progressed to stage 3, commonly known as AIDS.

There are several potential causes, all of which are related to untreated HIV with high viral loads. They include poor absorption of nutrients in the intestinal tract, harmful changes in metabolism, and low food intake, which may stem from a poor appetite or an infection in the mouth.

The main treatment is the primary HIV medication, antiretroviral therapy. This treatment reduces HIV in the blood and leads to an average 10–25% weight gain per year. To address the specific causes, doctors may prescribe additional medications, such as appetite stimulants.

Keep reading to learn more about HIV wasting syndrome, including the causes, treatment, and prevention methods.

HIV is a virus that infects the body and attacks the immune system. If a patient does not receive treatment, HIV can progress to a later stage of the condition known as stage 3, or AIDS.

HIV wasting syndrome is a term for the unintentional loss of more than 10% of body weight that manifests with fever, as well as weakness or diarrhea lasting for at least 30 days. For example, in an individual weighing 130 pounds (lbs), this would involve a weight loss in excess of 13 lbs.

The decrease in weight can be due to the loss of both muscle and fat. It happens in the last stage of HIV, when damage to the immune system has accumulated and led to AIDS.

A study reports that despite effective HIV treatment, weight loss remains a problem in many patients with the condition. It affects nearly 10% of patients with managed care plans.


Signs and Symptoms of HIV Wasting Syndrome

The symptoms may include the following:

  • Loss of more than 10% of body weight
  • Chronic weakness or diarrhea
  • Fever that lingers for at least 1 month
  • Fatigue and tiredness
  •  Loss of both lean body mass and fat mass


Causes of HIV Wasting Syndrome

HIV wasting syndrome may occur due to an many different causes. These could include the following:

Poor Nutrient Absorption

Impaired nutrient absorption may stem from opportunistic infections or HIV’s direct effect on the intestinal lining, both of which reduce absorption. Opportunistic infections are those to which people with a weakened immune system are susceptible.

Diarrhea may be another cause of poor absorption because it involves a loss of nutrients and calories.

Inadequate Food Intake

The factors below may lead to low food intake:

  • Lack of appetite: A reduced appetite is a common HIV symptom. Furthermore, some medications may decrease appetite because of side effects, such as tingling around the mouth, nausea, and changes in the sense of taste. In addition, depression can cause a loss of appetite.
  • Infections in the mouth or throat: These infections may make eating painful. They can also cause a feeling of fullness after eating just a small amount of food.
  • Low energy: This symptom can present challenges in shopping for food and preparing meals.

Metabolism Changes

HIV has a harmful effect on protein building and food digestion. The condition also changes the levels of some hormones, such as thyroid and testosterone, which can affect metabolism. Patients with HIV need more calories than people without the condition to maintain their weight.


Diagnosis of HIV Wasting Syndrome

A study notes that although HIV-associated wasting may be obvious in the later stages, detecting it in the early stages is more challenging because various factors can cause unexplained weight loss in patients with HIV.

Scientists state that when other explanations for weight loss are absent, body cell mass (BCM) provides the strongest evidence of wasting. A reduction in BCM denotes a decline in cells that use oxygen, metabolize glucose, and produce carbon dioxide.

However, doctors typically look instead for the characteristic signs of long-lasting fever and an unintentional weight loss of more than 10% of body weight.


Treatment of HIV Wasting Syndrome

The treatment for HIV is antiretroviral therapy, which reduces the amount of HIV in the blood, the viral load. When the treatment decreases the viral load to undetectable levels, it usually leads to a weight increase of 10–25% per year.

Antiretroviral treatment can slow HIV progression and help prevent wasting. Doctors advise a patient with HIV to start the treatment as soon as possible after they receive a diagnosis. Delaying treatment will result in continued harm to the immune system, while starting treatment early can help keep someone healthy for many years.

Other treatments may include the following:

Nausea and Vomiting Medications

These drugs aim to relieve the symptoms of HIV. Some patients with the condition have also expressed an interest in cannabis or specific compounds in the plant, such as cannabinoids. A review looked at clinical trials that assessed the value of cannabinoids for HIV wasting. It concluded that any evidence of effectiveness is very low and that the compounds would likely cause frequent side effects.

Appetite Stimulants

Sometimes, doctors prescribe appetite stimulants, such as megestrol acetate (Megace) and dronabinol (Marinol). However, both medications have downsides. Megace produces the side effects of blood clots, diabetes, and bone problems. Marinol is a synthetic form of marijuana, which may cause psychosis, addiction, and blood pressure changes.

Reducing Diarrhea

The impaired immunity of HIV leaves a person at risk of opportunistic infections that can cause diarrhea. Doctors attempt to treat them, but certain ones are very hard to eradicate.

The best form of treatment will be antiretroviral therapy, as this prevents further weakening of the immune system and leads to weight gain.

Hormone Treatments

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the human growth hormone somatropin (Serostim) to increase weight and lean body mass. However, as this medication is very costly and can cause severe side effects, some experts believe that dosages lower than the FDA-approved dosage may be preferable and still effective.

Researchers are studying other hormone treatments, such as testosterone and muscle-building agents. One example is 19-nortestosterone (Nandrolone).

Exercise

Progressive resistance training is a type of workout that uses weights and machines to increase lean muscle mass. Exercise also offers the additional benefits of strengthening bones, improving cholesterol levels, and elevating mood.


Building Muscles

Somatropin, a human growth hormone, helps you gain weight and lean body mass. It’s approved by Medicaid, but it’s also expensive. And it causes high blood sugar levels and muscle and joint pain.

Progressive resistance training can help you develop lean body mass. When you exercise, you can gradually increase weight, repetitions, or sets to make you stronger.

Testosterone and anabolic steroids may help you build muscle, but because they’re related to sex hormones, they can cause male infertility or irregular periods. They can also lower your good cholesterol (HDL).

Thalidomide can lower levels of cytokines. The downside is possible muscle weakness. You may also get tingling or burning in your arms or legs.


Dietary Considerations

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the right kind of diet can help. The optimal diet may differ from the low-fat, low-calorie diet that doctors typically recommend for individuals with a good health status. People with HIV need more protein and calories than the standard recommended amounts to prevent muscle mass loss.

Examples of foods to add to the diet include:

  • Beans and peas
  • Cheese
  • Eggs
  • Instant breakfast drinks
  • Sauces
  • Milkshakes
  • Peanut butter

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Samples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.

Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.

All our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

This critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

Including fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

We can also procure most human bio-specimens, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols; you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.

Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.

日本のお客様は、ベイバイオサイエンスジャパンBay Biosciences Japanまたはhttp://baybiosciences-jp.com/contact/までご連絡ください。