DOI: 10.1097/01.NT.0000403760.98741.f9

,  

Issn Print: 1533-7006

Publication Date: 2011/08/04


Print

In NeuroAIDS, Infected Astrocytes May Cause Toxicity, Triggering Apoptosis

Richard Robinson

    loading  Checking for direct PDF access through Ovid

Excerpt

NeuroAIDS — the syndrome of neurologic damage caused by HIV — has emerged one of the most frustrating complications of HIV infection. While antiretroviral therapy has tamed the acute ravages of AIDS for many patients, the neurological damage done by the virus is often progressive and largely immune to antiviral treatment.
The problem is complicated by a lack of fundamental knowledge of the mechanisms by which the virus damages the CNS. In the words of Christina Marra, MD, a neurologist and infectious disease expert: “Despite twenty-plus years of investigation, we still don't know how HIV causes brain injury.”
A new study indicates a possible role, and potentially a significant one, for astrocytes. The finding spotlights a group of cells that, until recently, were thought to be “uninteresting” for understanding neuroAIDS, since so few astrocytes are infected with the virus. But the new research shows that those few cells may cause widespread toxicity to their neighbors, disrupting the blood-brain barrier and triggering apoptosis in many cells that are not themselves infected.
Only 5 percent of astrocytes become infected with HIV, according to Eliseo Eugenin, PhD, assistant professor of pathology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, who was the lead researcher on the study published June 29 in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Even in these, he said, viral production is extremely low, explaining the lack of interest in them among many scientists. The majority of virus in the brain resides instead in microglia and macrophages. The importance of the CSF as a reservoir for HIV that is relatively resistant to antiretroviral treatment has recently become an important topic in the field, as researchers contemplate whether complete eradication of the virus is a practical therapeutic strategy.
But the new study suggests that astrocytes may play a more important role than their numbers indicate. “We have identified an amplification system,” he said.
    loading  Loading Related Articles