Ditiocarb Sodium and HIV Infection
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Excerpt
To the Editor. —Hersh et al1 demonstrated in a controlled study that oral sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (ditiocarb), given once weekly, reduced the incidence of opportunistic infections by approximately 50% in patients with symptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Patients were advised to avoid alcohol for 12 hours before and 48 hours after the weekly dose because of "disulfiram (Antabuse)—like effects." Ditiocarb is the principal metabolite of disulfiram. After absorption in the gut, disulfiram is rapidly reduced to two molecules of ditiocarb.
Disulfiram and ditiocarb are similar in many biologic effects, including effectiveness in chelation therapy of nickel poisoning2 and potentiation of hyperbaric oxygen poisoning in rats.hyper3
Disulfiram is inexpensive, widely available, and has a well-defined and acceptable side-effect profile based on more than 40 years of extensive use in alcoholism. Should there not be clinical trials of this agent in HIV infection and AIDS?
