A class of drugs often used to treat HIV patients in Africa can cause premature aging, age related illnesses such as heart disease and dementia. The drug speeds up the aging caused by natural mutations in mitochondrial DNA to accumulate faster. The research can be found in this week’s online issue of Nature Genetics.
“HIV clinics were seeing patients who had otherwise been successfully treated but who showed signs of being much older than their years. This was a real mystery. But colleagues recognised many similarities with patients affected by mitochondrial diseases – conditions that affect energy production in our cells – and referred them to our clinic.”
When Chinnery examined the muscle cells of patients who had been treated with NRTIs he found that the mitochondria was similar to that found in older health people. Even patients who had been treated previously still showed signs of damage.