Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
United Press International - August 20, 2007
The researchers, led by Stuart Lipton of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at the University of California-San Diego, said the study offered a novel perspective on how the HIV/AIDS virus leads to learning and memory deficits, a condition known as HIV-associated dementia.
A protein found on the surface of the virus not only kills some mature brain cells, as earlier studies had shown, but also prevents the birth of new brain cells by crippling "adult neural progenitors," the new study found. Such progenitor cells are the closest thing to stem cells that have been found in the adult brain.
Lipton said by elucidating the mechanism responsible for the neurodegeneration and dementia seen in people infected with HIV, the findings made in mice might open the door to new therapies, according to the researchers.
"The breakthrough here is that the AIDS virus prevents stem cells in the brain from dividing; it hangs them up," said Lipton.
The research appears in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
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