Despite varying aetiology, the clinical signs and symptoms of chronic distal symmetrical sensory peripheral neuropathies are similar. Gary Bennett and colleagues argue that this similarity arises from a common cause: mitochondrial injury. Various chemotherapeutic drugs, HIV-associated viral proteins and excess glucose can hamper mitochondrial function, thereby causing a chronic neuronal energy deficit, which manifests as spontaneous discharges and compartmental neuronal degeneration. Pharmacological protection from mitochondrial injury during chemotherapy, HIV treatment or in patients with diabetes could thus be used as an intervention for these potentially debilitating neuropathies.
- Gary J. Bennett
- Timothy Doyle
- Daniela Salvemini
