Long-term treatment with recombinant nerve growth factor for HIV-associated sensory neuropathy

HIV-associated distal sensory polyneuropathy (DSP) is a common complication of AIDS. No effective treatment is available. The authors investigated the long-term effect (48 weeks) of the neurotrophin nerve growth factor (NGF) in an open-label study of 200 subjects with HIV-associated DSP. Similar to their previously reported double-blind study, the authors showed that NGF was safe and well tolerated and significantly improved pain symptoms. However, there was no improvement of neuropathy severity as assessed by neurologic examination, quantitative sensory testing, and epidermal nerve fiber density.