The Rockefeller group also showed that in tuberculosis patients, even a two-week course of thalidomide potentiated weight gain. When patients stopped thalidomide, their weights either stabilized or dropped. Other treatments of weight loss include human growth hormone, testosterone, and appetite enhancers such as megestrol acetate and marijuana, among others. None of these decrease TNF-a levels. Aphthous ulcers are painful lesions in the mouth that can affect a patient's ability to chew food.
Aphthous ulcers are usually self-limited problems in healthy people.
In patients with HIV, however, these ulcers often progress and become debilitating. When a large area is ulcerated, patients cannot swallow properly, leading to malnutrition and further compounding wasting. Even when the ulcers heal, they often recur. Currently there are very few effective, approved therapies, one of which is systemic corticosteroids. Corticosteroids inhibit the immune system non-selectively, which is of obvious concern in AIDS patients whose immune systems are already compromised.