**1. Introduction**

[17] Tambiev AKh, Kirikova NN, Mazo VK, Skalny AV. A method of obtaining seleniumcontaining preparation of spirulina biomass: Patent RF 2096037 from 17.04.1996.

[18] Sedykh EM, Lyabusheva OA, Tambiev AKh, Bannykh LN. Determination of the ele‐ mental composition of cyanobacteria cells and individual cell fractions by atomic emission and atomic absorption spectrometry. Journal of Analytical Chemistry 2005;

[19] Mazo VK, Gmoshinski IV, Parfenov AI, Ekisenina NI, Safonova SA, Shahovskaya AK, Popova YuP, Nizov AA(jr). Selenium status in some groups of patients suffering from gastrointestinal diseases. Trace Elements in Medicine (Moscow) 2001; 2(1) 28-31

[20] Notova SV, Baranova OV, Barysheva ES, Nigmatullina JF, Frolova OO, Gubajdullina SG. Modern conditions and ways of correcting the nutritional status in various age and industrial groups in the population of Orenburg region. Proc Int Kongress

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60(1) 35-40 [in Russian].

240 Pharmacology and Nutritional Intervention in the Treatment of Disease

[in Russian].

Hannover 2006.

Nutritional deficiencies have long been recognized as an important problem among HIV-1 seropositive individuals. They have a great demand for nutrients because of the stress placed on their immune systems. Moreover, poor nutrition may also affect drug effectiveness or increased toxicity [34-37]. It has been shown that micronutrient deficiencies are associated with more rapid HIV-disease progression and higher HIV-1 related mortality [38-40]. Supplemen‐ tation of micronutrient has delayed time to AIDS and improved survival, suggesting that supplementation could offer a simple and relatively inexpensive strategy to slow HIV-1 progression [41, 42].

HIV infected patients present changes in components of the antioxidant defense system, which may be the result of excessive production of oxygen-derived species during the development of the disease (Pace and Leaf, 1995) and that cells infected with HIV can enhance production of O2 •− [43]. This phenomenon combined with a deficiency in key antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and catalase, and a decreased concentrations of the antioxidant vitamins [44] may lead to severe oxidative stress in HIV-infected patients. Humans infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have been shown to be under chronic oxidative stress [44-46], which is the result of imbalance between free radical (or pro-oxidant) production and antiox‐ idant action. In HIV infection, oxidative stress may be caused by both overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a simultaneous deficiency of antioxidant defenses [47, 48]. Oxidative stress induced by ROS play a critical role in the stimulation of HIV replication and the development of immunodeficiency [49, 50].

© 2014 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**2. Subjects and methods**

Open clinical trial study was implemented to access antioxidant status among HIV-infected male volunteers in Latvia. Twenty six HIV-positive males (age 35.3 ± 2.5) whose serostatus are known were studied. They were recruited among two non-governmental HIV infected patients' support organizations by "snow-ball" methodology using gatekeepers as contact persons. All participants in the research study were volunteers and their agreement to participate was get through their gatekeepers. The HIV-infected subjects represented a broad range of disease progression. None of the screened subjects had (CD4) T cell counts less than

Impact of CoQ10, L-Carnitine and Cocktail Antioxidants on Oxidative Stress Markers in HIV Patients — Mini Review…

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Exclusion criteria for the study groups were as follows: they were over 18 years old, have not used antioxidants as food supplement two months before the study, had no active opportun‐ istic infections or malignancies, had readily mobile, and were no drug users. Any information

For the control group 10 uninfected males were selected among uninfected friends and relatives of HIV-infected individuals. Control subjects had no acute or chronic illness and were

HIV-infected individuals used food supplements– antioxidant cocktail for 6 month, including 250 mg L-carnitine (Bio-CarnitineTM), 800 µg vitamin A, 15 mg vitamin E, 90 mg vitamin C, 2 mg vitamin B6, 15 mg Zn, 100 mg CoQ10 and 75 µg selenium (organic) (Bio-SeleniumTM+Zn) a day. All subjects underwent an initial screening and after 6 months that included an anthro‐ pometric (weight and height) and biochemical (complete blood count, bilirubin, albumin, from liver panel-alanine aminotranferase (ALT) and alkaline aminotranferase (), from lipid profile total holesterol and triglicerides. All patients were evaluated with regard to the blood antiox‐ idant system, specifically superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) selenium-dependent

Participants will be involved in the study only after obtaining informed consent. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the Latvian Institute of Cardiology for Clinical and Physiological Research, Drug and Pharmaceutics Product Clinical Investigation.

After overnight fasting, venous blood samples were collected from all study subjects. Bio‐ chemical determinations were done at the hospital laboratory. CD4+and CD8+cell count was estimated by FACSscan flowcytometry (BD Becton Dickimon). Alanine aminotranferase (ALT) and alkaline aminotranferase were estimated by kinetic reaction (Hitachi 917, Roche Diagnos‐ tics), bilirubin, albumin and total protein by two point colour reaction (Hitachi 917, Roche Diagnostics). From lipid profile total holesterol and triglycerides were estimated by using fermentative colour reaction (Hitachi 917, Roche Diagnostics). Blood antioxidant system was evaluated at Riga Stradinš University laboratory. Selenium and α-Tocophrol concentrations

glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px, trace element selenium, and α-tocopherol).

of partner identifications was not used in the written information

not taking any medications or nutritional supplements.

**2.1. Subjects**

200x109

/L.

**2.2. Laboratory analysis**

**Figure 1.** Catalase level of HIV infected individuals and healthy subjects (k/g Hb)Catalase level of

**Figure 2.** Vitamin E level of HIV infected individuals and healthy subjects (μg /ml)

Many studies have focused on the role of nutritional supplements to attenuate signs and symptoms of HIV. Of these, some have reported favorable results, while many others have reported no benefit of the selected nutrient. Despite these mixed findings, recommendations for the use of nutritional supplements for the purposes of attenuating HIV are rampant. Based on this background, we have assessed the antioxidant status among HIV-infected patients on oxidative stress after antioxidant supplementation.
