Cytokine use in the management of HIV disease

Multilineage hematopoietic defects occur in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and affect therapy of the disease and of associated opportunistic infections and neoplasms. Anemia and neutropenia are common in HIV patients, and can occur as a result of HIV-related myelosuppression or complications or may be secondary effects of antiretroviral or other agents used in management of the disease. With the advent of combination drug therapy for the treatment of HIV infection and prophylaxis and treatment of infectious complications, myelosuppression is frequently encountered and may be treated with synthetic hematopoietic growth factors. Erythropoietin has been shown to increase mean hematocrit levels and to reduce transfusion requirements in anemic HIV-infected patients receiving zidovudine. Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor have been shown to increase neutrophil counts in patients with AIDS-related bone marrow failure and those receiving zidovudine, interferon-alpha, or ganciclovir. Although recent research using interleukin-2 (IL-2) has shown that use of this cytokine in AIDS patients can lead to increases in CD4 cell counts that appear to be functional, further study is needed to determine whether cytokines can play a role other than palliation in HIV-infected patients.