Use of Pentoxifylline Therapy for Patients with AIDS-Related Wasting: Pilot Study

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Abstract
Severe weight loss is a common manifestation of advanced infection with the human immunodeficiency virus. The level of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), an inducer of cachexia in laboratory animals, is elevated in the serum of some patients with AIDS. In a pilot study, five patients with unexplained AIDS-related wasting were treated with pentoxifylline, a known suppressor of TNF-α production. Three of the five patients had elevated baseline serum levels of TNF-α, and these three patients did not have significant weight gain after 4–8 weeks of pentoxifylline therapy despite the reduction of serum TNF-α levels. The remaining two patients, who did not have elevated serum levels of TNF-α, continued to lose weight and developed extensive bacterial pneumonia within 3 weeks of starting pentoxifylline therapy. Thus, therapy with pentoxifylline did not clearly benefit the patients with AIDS-related wasting in this uncontrolled pilot study; indeed, it might have been harmful for a subgroup of these patients.

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