Serum selenium and skin diseases among Nigerians with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome

Abstract

BackgroundThe role of selenium as an antioxidant micronutrient has garnered the unprecedented focus of researchers in recent times. No clinical study has related serum selenium concentration to skin diseases in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients.MethodsIn this study, 134 newly diagnosed HIV patients that satisfied the inclusion criteria were included. Skin diseases were clinically diagnosed and fasting venous blood was taken for assessment of serum selenium using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer.ResultsThe mean age of HIV subjects with and without skin disease were not significantly different: 32.72 ± 9.21 versus 35.86 ± 8.55 years, P = 0.077, respectively. The mean of serum selenium (0.51 ± 0.48 versus 0.81 ± 0.39), CD4+ count (228.06 ± 212.89 versus 446.41 ± 182.87), and body mass index (BMI; 21.09 ± 3.58 versus 23.53 ± 3.35) were significantly lower (P < 0.001) for HIV/AIDS participants with skin disease than those without skin disease. We found significant clustering of symptoms and signs: fever (P = 0.037), weight loss (P = 0.009), oral candidiasis (P = 0.038), pallor (P = 0.037) among HIV/AIDS subjects with skin diseases than those without. Low serum selenium concentration was significantly associated with primary skin disease of HIV/AIDS, such as pruritic papular eruption of AIDS (P = 0.003), xeroderma (P = 0.030), fluffy hair (P = 0.021), blue-black nail hyperpigmentation (P = 0.033) and secondary skin disease, such as oral candidiasis (P = 0.002). There was a significant association between low serum selenium concentration and increasing frequency of skin diseases (P = 0.002), but serum selenium was not significantly related to extents of distribution of skin diseases (P > 0.05).Conclusionserum selenium concentration was lower among HIV subjects with skin diseases than those without skin disease. Pruritic papular eruption, xeroderma, fluffy hair, blue-black nail hyper pigmentation, and oral candidiasis were significantly associated with low serum selenium concentration.

Skin Diseases in Human Immunodeficiency Virus infected children in the era of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy: Epidemiological and Clinical Profile in Pediatric Department of Cotonou, Benin

“…Like most previous pediatric studies which found rarely or no cases of tumor dermatosis such as Kaposi's disease we have not observed such cases. This observation may also be related to the short duration of our study which did not allow us to receive cases of infantile Kaposi's disease [5,9,19].…”

“…These are important micronutrients involved in functional immune reconstitution. Their deficiency would therefore contribute to the worsening of the quantitative and qualitative deficit immunity [17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

“…HIV-infected patients[19].Shivakoti et al have shown through a study in 9 countries that the deficiency of these vitamins and trace elements are not corrected by ARV treatment[23].Baum and al in 2013 and Kamwesiga et al in 2016 have shown in large cohorts of HIV-positive patients that supplementation with vitamins and trace elements contributes to improving immunity and significantly reducing morbidity associated with HIV infection…”

The Role of Selenium in Health and Disease

“…Finally, in infected mice, selenium supplementation was able to decrease histological lesions by reducing inflammation [164][165][166][167][168]. [153,187,[201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212] No significant variation of Se level in infected people [213][214][215] Low selenium level associated with low CD4 count [153,203,206,207,211] Low selenium level associated with a higher progression to AIDS [201][202][203][204]206] Low selenium level associated with vaginal shedding of HIV [216] High selenium level associated with vaginal shedding of HIV [217] No significant variation of Se level in infected people treated with HAART [218] More skin desease in Se deficient HIV infected people [211] No…”

Whole-Transcriptome Sequencing–Based Profiling of the Cutaneous Virome in Patients with Secondary Immunodeficiency

“…Many families have a well-defined immune deficiency due to compromised T-cell immunity or the keratinocyte-intrinsic immune system ( Biglari et al, 2024 ). In addition to genetically determined susceptibility to viral infections in patients with primary immune deficiency, many cases have been documented where the cutaneous lesions are associated with acquired immune deficiency, for example, secondary to acquired immune deficiency syndrome or human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV1) infections ( Akinboro et al, 2013 ; Cockerell, 1991 ; Valencia and Moreno, 2017 ).…”