Aditya N. Bade1,
Santhi Gorantla1, Larisa Y. Poluektova1, Edward Makarov1,
Howard E. Gendelman1, Michael Douglas Boska2, Yutong
Liu2
1Pharmacology
and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.,
Omaha, NE, United States; 2Department of Radiology, University of
Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha., Omaha, NE, United States
Although antiretroviral therapy has decreased the prevalence of HAD, overall prevalence of HAND has remained unchanged affecting from 39 to 52% of infected patients. Diagnosis of HAND could be improved if disease biomarkers were available either from cerebrospinal fluid tests or by neuroimaging. We used Mn2+ enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to evaluate changes in the brain of humanized mice due to HIV-1 Clade-C infection. Changes in Mn2+ uptake in hippocampus and amygdala indicated neuronal pathology in these regions. Since the function of these regions includes memory, abnormal signal intensity in infected mice suggests memory deficits may be found in these animals.
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