More on “HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorder”

Hint: It’s the drugs, not the “virus”

I was reminded today of the following, which I covered in my post from February 2023, The Truvada Disaster, and which we need to take a closer look at today. As always, emphasis is mine throughout. Things are looking worse and worse for TDF or “bad Truvada.”

More than half of HIV-positive patients taking medications like Truvada, Stribild and Atripla will eventually develop a neurocognitive disorder associated with the disease and the drug cocktails used to treat it, according to the findings of a new study.

Chinese researchers published a study in the European Journal of Pharmacology in February, which explored why more than half of all HIV-infected patients who take viral suppressant medications that include the active ingredient tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) will develop HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND).

The widely used drugs include Truvada, Viread, Atripla and several others. Most are combinations of several drugs required to suppress the viral load in HIV and AIDs patients

HAND affects mental and motor function, with increasing severity over time, and is often a sign of the transition from being HIV-positive to having a full AIDS diagnosis. In early stages, symptoms are minimal, including slowed extremity movements that do not impair activities. However, in the later stages it can render victims into a nearly vegetative state.

Previous studies have found that highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), such as treatment with drugs like Truvada and Atripla, is linked to the progression of HAND. However, it is unclear in previous studies whether the condition is linked to the known neurotoxicity of those drugs.

HAND - Here is a link to the lawsuit website from which the above quote comes.

Today we will look at the Chinese study cited in this quote and published in European Journal of Pharmacology. First, consider the following from the article in EJP:

In this recent study, researchers conducted a number of tests which showed that TDF drugs significantly inhibit the proliferation of PC-12 cells, which are nerve cells associated with brain function.

“These findings indicated that TDF may induce PC-12 cell apoptosis,” the researchers determined. “TDF has neural toxicity effect that is relevant to the cell apoptosis, which may be related to the increasing prevalence of HAND.”

The problems continue to mount for “bad Truvada.” From the abstract:

Despite the triumph of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in anti-HIV infection, more than half of the HIV infection individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy acquire HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND).

[…]

These findings indicated that TDF may induce PC-12 cell apoptosis. TDF has neural toxicity effect that is relevant to the cell apoptosis, which may be related to the increasing prevalence of HAND.

More than half. This is very sinister and alarming. Reading the paper, my alarm only continues to mount.

The differential antiretroviral drugs (ART) can penetrate into blood-brain barrier (BBB) which has been related to lower probability of compartmental HIV replication, such as the concentration of abacavir in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) could reach up to 33% of plasma concentration (Achenbach et al., 2010, Calcagno et al., 2015, Wong et al., 2010). The permeability of ART across the BBB may be associated with HAND (Das et al., 2016; DeMarino et al., 2017). Several studies indicated that the long-term HAART may cause NSC toxicity, whereas the effect of HAART in the severity of HAND is still debated, therefore, an advanced comprehension of the role of drugs in HAND pathophysiology is required.

Taking these drugs is really like a complicated game of choose your own adventure—you really never know what outcome will eventuate, although you can probably bet on at least some serious adverse events. On the one hand, they “cross the blood brain barrier,” enabling “suppression of ‘HIV’” in brain tissues. On the other, they may themselves in fact contribute to “HIV associated” neurological decline via apoptosis of PC-12 cells, nerve cells that are associated with brain function. Moving on:

TDF has been used as one of the most common NRTI for many years, due to its well virologic efficacy and generally benign side-effect profile (Chadwick et al., 2015). TDF prevents propagation and encourages apoptosis of cultured mouse neural progenitor cells (Xu et al., 2017), indicating the NSC toxicity of antiretroviral drugs may be associated with the development of HAND, hence the neurotoxicity of TDF is necessary to probe. Therefore, we hypothesize that TDF treatment may have detrimental effect on NSCs, which may be contributing to the rising occurrence of HAND.

[…]

To further understand the neural toxicity of TDF, as well as correlation with HAND's mechanism, we tested the effect of TDF treatment on cultured PC-12. Moreover, we tried to probe the mechanism of TDF medication by which it induces PC-12 cells apoptosis.

Generally benign side effect profile? Ask the 26,000 Truvada victims. They will tell a very different story.

The results are only summarized in the link above, but I obtained a hard copy of the paper itself. According to the Methods section, TDF was “bought from Gilead Sciences, Inc.” They further specify that certain reagents and cells were “purchased” from various pharmaceutical companies such as Sigma and KeyGen BioTECH. These PC-12 cells were obtained from rats, and their viability was measured by MTT assay. Controls were incubated “only with culture media,” whereas the other cells are incubated with TDF for 72 hours. The results are as follows.

The results showed that TDF significantly reduced the viability of PC-12 cells by a dose-dependent manner. […] TDF also damaged the nucleus in PC-12 cells.

[…]

Reactive oxygen species can react with unsaturated fatty acids in the lipid bilayer to generate secondary products, including malondialdehyde, which is a reliable gauge to measure the oxidative stress. […] The malondialdehyde value of TDF treated groups were markedly elevated as compared to the control group.

Where have we heard of “oxidative stress” before? The in vitro experiment summarized in this paper has some very concerning implications. We know how the damages of these drugs are routinely suppressed and censored, so the appearance of this paper, published in 2019 (shortly after the first lawsuits on Truvada were filed) gives the appearance of damage control.

HIV infiltrates the CNS and produces neurological syndromes such as HAND. The recommendations were used to define HAND status within HIV+ subjects into four categories: Asymptomatic neurological impairment (ANI), mild neurological disorder (MND), within normal limits (WNL), and HIV associated dementia (HAD)(Antinori et al., 2007). No doubt rises in life-expectancy of HIV positive (HIV+) individuals has been seen which is indebted to the HAART therapeutic progress. The morbidity of the most severe neurological damage i.e. HAD was reduced, however, the prevalence of HAND is still increasing which is observed in 50% of HIV-infected individuals on combination antiretroviral therapy. HAART seems not to help in reducing the progression of HAND.

This article is actually quite damning for HAART, as they slip the following information into the Discussion, inadvertently throwing all antiretroviral drugs under the bus:

Several studies show that long-term HAART treatment is related to a range of adverse effects including hepatic steatosis, neuropathy, cardiomyopathy, pancreatitis, lactic acidosis, ototoxicity, nephrotoxicity, retinal lesions and possible lipodystrophy.

So these “lifesaving drugs” cause not only neurological disease, as demonstrated in this paper, but they also cause cardiovascular damage, liver disease, kidney disease, fat redistribution, vision damage, and hearing damage. All of this for medications that are prescribed not only to “HIV positive” individuals, but also to HIV-negative individuals in the form of PrEP, and they are meant to be taken for life. This is really pretty incredible. We have a treatment being given as a prophylactic to a group that, even per the mainstream, has no hint of the condition being treated for, and is admittedly toxic to nearly every system in the body. This is terrifying; if a full 50% of people taking TDF develop HAND, that is beyond unacceptable. I’m very curious to see what the fallout of the lawsuits will be.

Finally, we conclude:

However, extensive studies should be conducted on various antiretroviral drug treatment toxicity and different types of cells, as still potential harmful effects of antiretroviral treatment on nervous system has received little attention. […] The limitation of this research is that HIV diseases [sic] need a long duration of AIDS treatment. Long term administration may cause drug accumulation which increases the risk of neurotoxic effects.

Why are these drugs being pushed, still, at a price tag of nearly $2k per month? It’s an unimaginable tragedy to me that “HIV” positive and negative individuals “at risk” are given such a sinister choice—either succumb to a “deadly virus” (that has never been shown to be exogenous or to cause any disease at all, but which the vast majority of humanity has been hypnotized to be terrified of—sound familiar?), or be “retained in care” on drugs that literally damage every system in the body. The message given by proponents of the HIV AIDS story is so dangerous: if you’re in a “risk group,” you can never be truly healthy and you can certainly never have full sovereignty over your own health and body. The pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies will own you forever. The philosophical implications of this are profound, when it comes to how we perceive and treat members of these “risk groups.” The evidence continues to mount in support of the reality that the HIV AIDS story necessarily enslaves and damages both the gay and the Black communities.

To support my work on Substack, please purchase my book for yourself or for a friend, and leave a review on Amazon. You can learn about efforts to ban my book here. You can also buy my new book Almost Cancelled. Or consider becoming a free or paid subscriber!

If you’re a new reader and would like some background as to my views on HIV AIDS, including the “existence” question, please refer to this post and the links contained therein. My interview with Sam Bailey is also a great introduction.