A study to determine the etiology of oral soft tissue lesions in HIV infected patients is underway. A significant number of these ulcerative lesions have been examined and were found to be Candida or Herpes infection, however, many of them cannot be attributed to either of these infectious agents. Attempts to cultivate fungi or bacteria from these tissue samples have been unsuccessful in the former instance and the bacterial flora has been identified as microorganisms normally associated with soft tissues; namely gram positive streptococci. Therefore, the study has focused on identifying viral agents that might be causing these lesions. Lesions of HIV-infected subjects are currently being cultured for Herpes simplex 1 and 2 (HSV-1, 2), Herpes Human Virus 6 (HHV-6), Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). In addition, serum antibody titers for all of these viruses are being quantitated to correlate presence of the lesion to viral antibody levels. Roughly 80% of HIV-infected patients being treated with antiviral agent, dideoxyinosine (ddl), suffer from an unusual form of xerostomia. The parameters of this salivary disorder are currently being examined.
