How HIV-1 kills: Implications for the Treatment and Prevention of AIDS

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, April, 2002 by Harold D. Foster

Abstract:

HIV-1 is parasitic. Since it encodes for glutathione peroxidase, as it replicates, its genetic needs cause it to deprive HIV-1 seropositive individuals of selenium, cysteine, glutamine and tryptophan, the four basic components of this selenoenzyme. Eventually this process causes severe deficiencies of each of these four nutrients. These deficiencies are responsible for the major symptoms of AIDS which include immune system collapse, muscle wasting, dermatitis, diarrhea and dementia. Associated pathogenic cofactors also are responsible for a variety of unique symptoms. Any treatment for HIV/AIDS must, therefore, include normalization of body levels of selenium, cysteine, glutamine and tryptophan.

Introduction

It is hypothesized that HIV-1 kills simply by replication, because as Taylor and coworkers have established, HIV-1 encodes for glutathione peroxidase. (1) This genetic characteristic ensures that as this virus replicates it competes with its host for the four basic components of this selenoenzyme: namely selenium, cysteine, glutamine and tryptophan. (2) It follows that unless supplements are added to the diet of HIV-1 seropositive individuals, this process must eventually, inevitably culminate in extreme shortages of these four substances, each of which will be accompanied by its own deficiency symptoms. It is argued here that AIDS is the end result of this multiple depletion process and that it can be treated most effectively by reversing all four of these nutrient deficiency states.

If this hypothesis is correct, HIV/ AIDS patients will be found to be deficient in selenium, cysteine, glutamine and tryptophan. As a result, supplementation with any one of these substances will reduce some, but not all, of their disease symptoms. The remainder of this article presents evidence that this is indeed the case.

Selenium Deficiency

Several studies have shown declining plasma selenium in individuals with HIV/AIDS. (3-5) Baum and coworkers, (3) for example, monitored 125 HIV-1seropositive drug using, men and women in Miami, Florida, establishing that depressed selenium plasma levels were a more accurate predictor of their mortality than were CD4 T cell counts. Similarly, 24 HIV-infected children were monitored for 5 years, during which time 50% died of HIV-related causes. (6) The lower their serum selenium levels, the more rapidly death occurred, indicating an association with faster disease progression.

Many of the symptoms associated with AIDS appear to be linked directly to selenium deficiency. This author (7) has argued that the fact that adults and children dying of AIDS display both depressed CD4 T cell counts and very depleted plasma selenium stores (3,6) is not coincidental. Rather, it provides evidence of the operation of a positive feedback system in which a fall in selenium triggers a reduction in the number of CD4 T cells because this trace element is essential for lymphocyte production. (8,9) This decline in CD4 T cells then allows other pathogens to thrive, a process which causes a further drop in serum selenium. (10) This downward spiral undermines the immune system and has been termed the "selenium -- CD4 T cell tailspin" by the author. (7)

A hypothyroid or low T3 syndrome also is well-established in patients with AIDS. (11,12) This low level of T3 (triiodothyronine) seen in AIDS patients also seems a logical consequence of selenium deficiency, since this trace element is required by the deiodinase enzyme that converts T4 (thyroxine) to T3. It has been further suggested that this selenium-related thyroid abnormality may be a factor in the AIDS wasting process. (13)

Although no clinical trials of the impact of selenium on AIDS patients have yet been conducted, some evidence of its value exists in the popular literature. In August 1987, for example, the Telegraph Sunday Magazine's cover published the photograph of a former patient with the headline "Four years ago this man was dying of AIDS. Now he is getting better." This newspaper supplement carried details of three former AIDS patients who had made remarkable recoveries by taking daily nutritional supplements that included 300 mcg of selenium.(14)

In addition, it has been suggested (7) that one of the major reasons HIV-1 infection is so low and almost static in Senegal, despite widespread unprotected sexual activity, is because the soils and food supply are unusually selenium enriched. In contrast, AIDS is now extremely common in those countries of Africa, such as Zaire, which are known to have very selenium deficient soils. The recently published Selenium World Atlas (15) used the incidence of HIV-positive populations as a surrogate measure of selenium deficiency in Africa, since knowledge of actual soil levels of this trace element is quite scarce. This argument by analogy was made on the advice of E.W. Taylor (15) who was the first to recognize that in Africa, HIV-1 was spreading most rapidly in selenium depleted regions. Interestingly, Cowgill (16) has shown that, in the United States, an inverse relationship also exists between soil selenium bioavailability and AIDS mortality rates, especially in the African American population.