Prospects for therapy of HIV-associated neurologic diseases.

In June 1996, NINDS and Johns Hopkins University Department of Neurology organized a 1‰ day workshop, `HIV Neurologic Therapies Workshop'. The principal objective of the Workshop was to facilitate the development of innovative therapeutic strategies for dementia, neuropathy, neurologic CMV disease, and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). Separate groups focused on different neurologic therapies with the following goals: identifying new compounds, optimizing trial design, and prioritizing plans for the initiation of neurologic trials. In this summary, we will review the findings and recommendations of the conference: (1) Definition of endpoints in trials of HIV dementia; (2) Antiretroviral agents for therapy of HIV dementia; (3) Inflammatory mediators and neuroprotective agents in HIV dementia and (4) Therapy for CMV encephalitis/radiculomyelitis and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. A full list of Workshop participants is provided in Appendix 1 and this report attempts to synthesize the discussions and presentations contributed by these participants.