Cerebrospinal fluid and serum neopterin and biopterin in D-retrovirus-infected rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): relationship to clinical and viral status.
Increases in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neopterin concentrations accompany many inflammatory diseases, including infection with HIV-1 and may reflect activation of guanosine triphosphate (GTP) cyclohydrolase 1 by gamma-interferon and other cytokines. In the present study, macaques with clinical simian AIDS (SAIDS) infected with the immunosuppressive type-D retrovirus D/1/California had increased concentrations of CSF neopterin but not of biopterin beginning soon after seroconversion. Normal neopterin concentrations in the CSF were found in macaques with SAIDS-related complex as well as asymptomatic, viremic macaques. CSF biopterin, serum neopterin and serum biopterin concentrations of D/1/California-infected macaques were not different from the levels in control animals. The increase in CSF neopterin may reflect local inflammatory responses and paralleled previously documented changes in L-tryptophan metabolism in these macaques. However, the absence of macrophage infiltrates in the brain of the infected macaques suggests a non-macrophage source of both increased CSF neopterin and tryptophan metabolites in the SAIDS macaques.
Heyes
M P
MP
Section on Analytical Biochemistry, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
Lackner
A
A
Kaufman
S
S
Milstien
S
S
D000818:Animals; D001708:Biopterins / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D007700:Kinetics; D007737:Kynurenine / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D019798:Neopterin; D016097:Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology
D001708:Biopterins; D007737:Kynurenine; D019798:Neopterin