Grant: Operating Grant - PA: HIV/AIDS Research Initiative - Biomedical/Clinical Stream

We have recently shown that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 infection causes HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) despite receiving active HIV care in Canada. These disorders are defined by neurocognitive impairments, neuropsychiatric features and motor abnormalities. HAND is a burgeoning problem encountered in clinical care, which heralds a worsened survival rate among people with HIV/AIDS. Neurodegeneration (brain cell death) is the basis of HAND and is caused by the direct toxic effects of HIV proteins together with concurrent inflammation within the brain although the causative disease mechanisms remain uncertain. Herein, we will investigate the causes and new treatment strategies for HAND through analyses of clinical brain and blood specimens from our Alberta NeuroAIDS Cohort, novel cell culture and animal models developed in our laboratory.