Rodent models for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Immunology
• Virology

Background:

• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) encompass neurological impairments during chronic HIV infection.
• Research aims to enhance treatments, understand disease progression, improve drug delivery, and prevent neurodegeneration and viral resistance.
• Developing accurate small-animal models for HIV-related neurological conditions is challenging due to HIV's species-specific nature.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current rodent models of HAND, particularly those incorporating a human immune system.
• To discuss the potential of these advanced models in understanding human HAND pathobiology.
• To explore their utility in disease monitoring and the discovery of novel therapeutics.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on rodent models for HAND.
• Analysis of models that include a human immune system to study HIV infection.
• Examination of observed antiviral responses, neuroinflammation, and immune cell trafficking across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in these models.

Main Results:

• Rodent models with human immune systems now exist, overcoming previous challenges in HIV disease modeling.
• These models exhibit key features of HAND, including antiviral responses, neuroinflammation, and immune cell migration to the brain.
• The models demonstrate the potential to recapitulate aspects of human HIV neurological disease.

Conclusions:

• Advanced rodent models, especially those with human immune systems, are crucial for studying HAND.
• These models offer a platform to investigate HIV's impact on the brain and evaluate therapeutic strategies.
• Further development and utilization of these models can accelerate the discovery of effective treatments for HAND.