Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) based studies investigating brain metabolite alterations due to HIV infection generally acquired MR spectra from single or multi-voxels covering regions related to HIV. In this study, we acquire whole-brain MRSI data to map regional metabolite variations in the entire brain, determine regions mostly affected by HIV clade-C infection, and identify the mechanism by which HIV damages the brain. Results show widespread increases in myo-inositol, glutamate/glutamine, choline, and creatine, and decreases in N-acetylaspartate, indicating neuronal dysfunction and astrogliosis in the white matter, as well as disruptions in synaptic transmission, neurotoxicity and inflammation throughout the brain.
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