Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Brain

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects the nervous system in the majority of patients, causing a variety of neurological syndromes throughout the course of the disease. This review focuses on the effects of HIV in the central nervous system, with an emphasis on HIV-associated dementia. HIV-associated dementia occurs in a subset of patients with AIDS; it is unclear why these patients and not all patients develop the disease. Several factors are likely to be involved in the pathogenesis of HIV-associated dementia, including neurotoxins released from the virus and/or infected macrophages and microglia, immunologic dysregulation of macrophage function, and specific genetic strains of HIV. These factors, and their possible interactions, are discussed.