HIV brain infection may lead to dementia
Scientists in Melbourne claim they have found out why a high proportion of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) develop dementia. They worked out that HIV can hide in the brain, protected from the immune system and anti-viral drugs. This brain infection can often lead to dementia.
Scientists in Melbourne claim they have found out why a high proportion of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) develop dementia.
They worked out that HIV can hide in the brain, protected from the immune system and anti-viral drugs. This brain infection can often lead to dementia.
HIV infects vital cells in the human immune system. Many HIV sufferers will progress to the AIDS virus at a variable rate, generally within 10 years of HIV infection. Their progression to AIDS is affected by viral, host, and environmental factors.
Burnet Institute research fellow, Dr Lachlan Gray, told DPS eNews as soon as the virus enters a brain cell it changes.
“It (the virus) sort of took a low profile and just sort of went silent. So in doing so, that’s the way it’s evaded or hides out within cells,” Dr Gray said.
“It didn’t really produce any viral proteins so then the immune system and the drugs couldn’t see the virus,” he said.
“The persistence of the virus in the brain compromises the brain’s normal function, and leads to the death of neurons and to clinical dementia,” Lachlan says.
Dr Gray said the discovery would help with the manufacturing of new drugs.
“We should be able to design drugs to reactivate the virus (HIV) and then the immune cells and the drugs will be able to see the infected cells and clear them from the brain,” he said.
About a fifth of HIV patients have dementia and the number is growing as new drugs help patients live longer.
Dr Gray’s work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum.
Dr Gray’s research is part of a larger project which aim to trial new drugs that could potentially eradicate or even cure HIV. He is one of 16 early-career scientists unveiling their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government.
