ELEVATED CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID AND SERUM NITRATE AND NITRITE LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH CENTRAL-NERVOUS-SYSTEM COMPLICATIONS OF HIV-1 INFECTION - A CORRELATION WITH BLOOD-BRAIN-BARRIER DYSFUNCTION

As nitric oxide (. NO) is hypothesised to play a role in the immunopat hogenesis of neurological complications associated with inflammation, we compared levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum . NO metabol ites in 24 patients with HIV-1 infection, to those in 58 non-HN infect ed patients with neurological disorders. Levels of . NO metabolites we re correlated with blood-brain-barrier dysfunction. CSF and serum nitr ate and nitrite levels were measured by the nitrate reductase and Grie ss reaction methods. The . NO metabolites, nitrate and nitrite, were r aised in the CSF and serum of patients with AIDS and central nervous s ystem complications, when compared to non-HIV infected patients with i nflammatory and non-inflammatory neurological disorders (median nitrat e and nitrite: CSF=18.3 mu M vs. 11.1 mu M vs. 7.0 mu M, P<0.001, and serum=53.8 mu M vs. 50.3 mu M vs. 41.4 mu M I, P=0.04, respectively). CSF nitrate and nitrite levels correlated with the albumin quotient. T his study supports the evidence that . NO is a potential mediator of b lood-brain-barrier breakdown in inflammatory diseases of the central n ervous system. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.