HIV can begin replicating in the brain as early as four months after initial infection, researchers have discovered. One-third of people not taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) to control their HIV will eventually develop HIV-associated dementia. The study's results in these newly infected people stress the importance of routine HIV testing to catch the infection as early as possible to allow the prompt initiation antiretroviral therapY.
IF SUCH THERAPY NOT STARTED IN TIME THEN PATIENT DEVELOP DEMENTIA OR LESS RECOGNITION AND CONCENTRATION AND PATIENT BECOME LESS ORIENTED TO VERBAL COMMAND RESPONSE FOR SPEAKING/SENSRY OR MOTOR FUNCTION.
A Team of researchers has discovered HIV can begin replicating in the brain as early as four months after initial infection. The study followed 72 treatment naïve participants during the first two years of HIV infection. Through analysis of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and blood samples, 20 percent of subjects showed replication in the central nervous system (CNS) at four months. Additionally, 30 percent of participants showed evidence of a marked CSF inflammatory response in at least one time point and 16 percent of study volunteers showed a marked CSF inflammatory response at multiple time points, suggesting an ongoing infection in the CNS. The findings will be published in the scientific journal PLoS Pathogens.
"This shows that viral replication and inflammation can occur early in infection with the concern being that the damage caused could be irreversible," says study virologist Ronald Swanstrom, PhD, Director of the University of North Carolina's Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC's School of Medicine. "HIV and inflammation have the potential to accelerate the aging process and cause neurocognitive impairment, in the extreme case resulting in HIV-associated dementia."
One-third of people not taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) to control their HIV will eventually develop HIV-associated dementia, Swanstrom says. For him, the study's results in these newly infected people stress the importance of routine HIV testing to catch the infection as early as possible to allow the prompt initiation antiretroviral therapy.