Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Monday, June 28, 2004
The discovery would enable scientists to develop a new class of drugs to fight AIDS dementia, researchers said.
The researchers found human immunodeficiency virus -- the organism that causes AIDS -- uses proteins on its outer coat to stunt growth of neural progenitor cells, the precursors to neurons.
HIV binds to receptors on the cells so they do not differentiate into neurons, leading to the impaired cognition and memory loss of AIDS dementia, researchers said. They also said they based their study on recent findings showing that neural progenitor cells proliferate in adults and not just in fetuses as previously thought and that the cells can be stunted by chemokines, signal molecules.
This inhibition mechanism is unique, because viruses conventionally act by actually entering into cells, they said.
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