The Nation - News from April 18, 1989

The painful nerve damage that troubles many AIDS patients may stem from the body attacking itself rather than a direct assault by the AIDS virus, researchers said in a study presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in Chicago. Doctors from UC San Francisco said their research suggests the AIDS virus somehow triggers a patient’s immune system to produce antibodies that attack peripheral nerve tissue. Normally, antibodies search out and destroy only objects foreign to the body, such as bacteria. A type of nerve damage, called peripheral neuropathy, is found in 35 to 50% of all people with AIDS.