A study of more than 29,000 people reveals a lower risk of multiple sclerosis in HIV-positive people who are on antiretroviral treatments.
- Antiretroviral drugs, which treat people with HIV, may also be effective against multiple sclerosis, according to a new study.
- The researchers hope that their work will open the way to new therapeutic perspectives, while to date there is no real treatment against the progression of the disease.
- Some 110,000 people today suffer from multiple sclerosis in France. It is the leading cause of severe non-traumatic disability in young adults.
Would antiretroviral drugs, which treat HIV-positive people, also be effective against multiple sclerosis? This is what a new study published in the journal suggests Annals of Neurology and spotted by The Conversation.
While previous work has already shown that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who are on antiretroviral treatment for HIV experience a slowdown or even disappearance of the disease, a team of scientists wanted to understand the potential link between the virus , medications and autoimmune disease.
Reduced risk of multiple sclerosis in patients taking HIV treatment
As part of her study, she used two cohorts of patients living with HIV in Sweden and Canada, i.e. more than 29,000 people. During an average follow-up period of ten years, only 14 HIV-positive people developed multiple sclerosis, 47% fewer cases than expected (based on general population figures).
“When we looked specifically at people who had taken antiretroviral drugs (almost everyone in the study), and only after they had started antiretroviral treatment, we found 45% fewer MS cases than expected “, write the two authors of the research, Kyla McKay and Elaine Kingwell. In other words, the risk is reduced in HIV-positive people on antiretroviral treatment, particularly in women (72% fewer cases).
Antiretrovirals protect against multiple sclerosis
It is impossible to say whether the virus/antiretroviral treatment may be responsible for reducing the risk of multiple sclerosis, but the researchers offer two plausible biological explanations.
HIV causes a progressive loss of immune cells, T lymphocytes. These same cells are also involved in MS, because they initiate the cascade of events leading to inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. “By reducing the number of T cells, HIV infection could reduce the likelihood that a person will develop MS”say the researchers.
However, “the risk of MS is lower when the HIV virus is suppressed by antiretroviral drugs”, this rather suggests that it is the treatment that plays a role, and not the virus. If antiretrovirals have a protective effect against the risk of sclerosis or the progression of the disease, it could be because they inhibit, at the same time, the activity of the Epstein-Barr virus, whose role in multiple sclerosis is increasingly documented.
The researchers hope that their work will open the way to new therapeutic perspectives, while to date there is no real treatment against the progression of the disease.
