Neuronal Injury and Repair in the SIV-lnfected Macaque Model of AIDS: Links to Other Neurodegenerative Diseases

摘要

Despite the fact that HIV is unable to infect neurons, CNS neuroinvasion results in neuronal injury and death, and causes significant neurological impairment in AIDS patients, a large percentage of whom suffer mild to debilitating behavioral, cognitive, motor neurological deficits together referred to as HIV-associated neuro-cognitive disorders (HAND), the severest form of which is HIV-associated dementia (HAD). The histopathologi-cal entity of HIV encephalopathy or encephalitis (HIVE) is characterized by the presence of virus within the brain parenchyma and perivascular accumulation of macrophages and multinucleated giant cells. The neurological symptoms in adults are attributed to additional neuropathological lesions including cortical, hippocam-pal, and striatal neuronal apoptosis and loss, alterations in the spatial pattern of neurons,cerebral atrophy, and morphologic alterations of dendrites of cortical neurons.