"AIDS Researchers Find Clues to How Virus Attacks Brain"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"AIDS Researchers Find Clues to How Virus Attacks Brain"

New York Times (12/14/90), P. A34
Kolata, Gina

Abstract: Researchers have found that HIV, which does not itself affect brain cells, may cause brain damage and dementia by infecting microglial cells and macrophages. Those immune system cells in the brain then release excitotoxins--small molecules that kill nerve cells in lab experiments. Dana Giulian and colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston said laboratory studies indicate that brain damage from many types of disorders such as stroke, head trauma, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's may be caused by the same chain of events. In all of these disorders, cells release too much of one of a variety of excitotoxins that floods the brain and injures and kills other cells, possibly exciting them to death. The excitotoxins released by HIV stick to NMDA receptors, protein molecules protruding from nerve cells, and kill the cells. By blocking the NMDA receptor with other drugs, researchers say, they could prevent the chain of events that leads to brain damage and dementia. The findings appear in the current issue of Science.

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