By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 28, 1998

UA researches find Vitamin E may decrease oxidants in mice with AIDS

Ryan A. Mihalyi Arizona Daily Wildcat Medical student Kozo Yoshikawa, a transfer student from Japan, prepares the mice used in an experiment to find a way to help combat heart disease. The mice breathe 30 minutes of tobacco smoke a day in an effort to worsen their heart condition.

UA researchers have found that mice infected with AIDS stand a high risk of heart disease - a condition they hope to better treat with Vitamin E.

Dr. Ron Watson, a University of Arizona Prevention Center research professor, said most AIDS patients are at a great risk for heart disease because the syndrome increases oxidant production. Oxidants, reactive oxygen molecules normally produced in the body, can eventually damage nerves, cells and vital organs like the heart and lungs.

Since AIDS patients are living longer, Watson said, there is more time for the chemical process to continue.

"AIDS patients live longer, so more are now dying from heart disease or lung disease," he said.

Based on Watson's study results, the AIDS virus, plus excessive smoking and drinking, stimulate the immune system and cause oxidants to form in the body.

"What happens is your white cells try to kill off the AIDS virus, and they don't succeed," he said. "It's like floor-boarding a car while it's not in gear, and it's racing and revving and nothing is happening. At the same time there is a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust and heat building up."

Watson said one way to prevent oxidant build up is to supplement diets with antioxidants, like Vitamin E.

"In theory, anybody, whether they have AIDS or they smoke or don't smoke, would benefit by taking more Vitamin E," he said.

Watson said his research team received a $900,000 grant in October from the American Heart and Lung Institute to continue a 10-year project studying murine "mouse" AIDS, an animal strain of the virus.

The team is exposing AIDS-infected mice to tobacco smoke and alcohol.

"They have normal mice, mice infected with AIDS, and they give them tobacco smoke and in a month or two we'll see if their heart damage is worse," Watson said.

If the mice experience heart disease, his team will try treating them with Vitamin E. The mice were first exposed to tobacco smoke in December.

Watson said antioxidants reduce heart disease in humans. Humans and mice infected with AIDS have high oxidant levels and low antioxidant levels.

The mice are being used because the same tests administered on humans would cost more and take more time.

"If it (the model) works with mouse AIDS, then people may say it's worth trying on people," Watson said.

He and his team will use a network of tubes and chambers, developed by Dr. Mark Witten, a University Medical Center research professor, to give the mice 30-minute doses of second-hand smoke five days a week.

Witten designed the equipment as part of a study on damage related to chronic smoking and arsenic exposure - dangers people who live next to copper mines face.

Tomás Sepulveda, a microbiology and immunology graduate student, is working with the team to find if other viruses can cause cardiac problems.

"The HIV virus doesn't attack heart muscle cells; we think it's a secondary process," he said. "We think it may be another virus that causes the disease."

Paula Inserra, a food science and nutrition graduate student, is also doing AIDS research on Watson's team.

Inserra said the mouse model is the best way to conduct a study without using humans.

"We're mimicking what happens in reality," she said.