Abstract #1060

Longitudinal Evaluation of Brain Lesion in SIV Macaques with Magnetization Transfer Imaging

Chun-Xia Li¹, Amelia Komery², James G. Herndon², Francis J. Novembre³, Xiaodong Zhang¹,²

¹Yerkes Imaging Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; ²Division of Neuropharmacology and Neurologic Diseases, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; ³Divisions of Microbiology and Immunology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States

Magnetization transfer (MT) imaging has been demonstrated to be a robust approach to characterize brain injury in HIV patients. In the present study, MT ratio (MTR) was used to detect longitudinal changes in the monkey brains after Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection. It is found that MTR decreased progressively in the cortical and subcortical regions during SIV infection, and the significant reduction in the cortical region was observed in the late study period in this pilot study. The results validate the MRI findings in HIV patients that MT imaging is a robust means to access the brain abnormities due to HIV infection.