Whole-brain white matter network reorganization in HIV

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neurology
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, despite effective antiretroviral therapy, leads to chronic conditions like HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND).
• The underlying biological mechanisms of HAND, characterized by cognitive impairments, remain incompletely understood.
• Subtle neurological alterations in HIV patients necessitate advanced diagnostic tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate structural brain network alterations in HIV-infected individuals using diffusion imaging.
• To determine if diffusion-imaging biomarkers can identify and characterize subtle neurological changes associated with HIV infection.
• To explore the application of graph theory in analyzing brain network modifications in HIV.

Main Methods:

• Employed multi-shell, multi-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution for diffusion imaging analysis.
• Utilized probabilistic tractography to reconstruct white matter pathways.
• Applied graph-theoretical analyses to quantify structural brain network properties.

Main Results:

• Identified statistically significant alterations in local brain regions, including the right postcentral gyrus, precuneus, and inferior parietal lobule.
• Observed significant changes in global graph-theoretical measures such as global clustering coefficient, global efficiency, and transitivity.
• Demonstrated a global and local reorganization of the structural connectome in HIV-infected patients.

Conclusions:

• Structural connectome analysis using graph theory can detect subtle alterations in brain regions of HIV patients.
• Diffusion-imaging biomarkers show promise for characterizing neurological changes in HIV infection.
• These findings support the potential of graph theory in evaluating therapeutic responses and enhancing clinical trials for HIV-associated neurological conditions.