HIV Disrupts the Blood-Brain Barrier

HIV Disrupts the Blood-Brain Barrier link
April 15, 2011
40 to 60% of patients with HIV suffer from HIV-related dementia, but why? The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a network of blood vessels with special properties (tight junctions) that keep harmful substances and pathogens out of the central nervous system (CNS). According to the June issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, HIV weakens this barrier by infecting a group of small cells crucial for the maintenance of the BBB: Astrocytes. Considering the important role of the BBB in maintaining CNS homeostasis the findings published in this study may be an important step towards a more complete understanding of HIV-related cognitive impairments.


Interesting! And I just finished reading an article on the important roles of different glial cells today, including astrocytes! This is really quite a finding about HIV, and it looks like we continue to get closer and closer to finding a cure. But of course the first step is understanding how it works before figuring out how to stop it.