Copper and Zinc Levels Mark AIDS In Gay Men

I
-'aJOJM4S
6S
YEARS
THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS
EMBARGOED UNTIL 9 A.M. PDT
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1990
COPPER AND ZINC LEVELS MARK AIDS IN GAY MEN _
High amounts of copper and low levels of zinc in the blood of
healthy gay men infected with the AIDS virus, HIV-1, are apparent
markers for the progress of their disease, according to Johns Hopkins
investigators.
Theirreport, prepared for the Sixth International Conference on
AIDS in San Francisco, is the first to examine the nutritional status
of men at earlier stages of HIV-1 infection. Previous studies have
focused on AIDS patients and have had conflicting results.
Zinc, and to a lesser extent copper, play important roles in __
maintainingatheresponse of the immune system. Zinctdeficiency is
associated with impairment of the function of T-cells, the white blood
cells targeted by HIV-1.
The Hopkins group found that the levels of copper and zinc
significantly distinguished the HIV-1-infected men who developed AIDS
from those who did not. Blood levels of copper also were significantly
higher in the HIV-1-infected healthy men when compared to the uninfected
men.
"AIDS patients frequently cannot properly absorb foods and
malnutrition is the result," reports Donna Sorensen, M.S.R.D., clinical
dietitian at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. "Now, we know that gay men
infected with HIV-l, who are not yet sick, suffer metabolic changes as
well."
The investigators tested for copper and zinc in frozen blood
samples from 54 HIV-l-infected gay men who later developed AIDS, 54
infected gay men who did not progress to AIDS and 54 uninfected gay men.
For example, those who developed AIDS have a serum level of copper
of 115.6 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dl), in comparison to 109.9
mcg/dl among the infected healthy men and 101.9 mcg/dl of the uninfected

men. Normal levels of copper range from 80 to 130 mg/dl.
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