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Of Mice and Monkeys: Can Animal Models Be Utilized to Study Neurological Consequences of Pediatric HIV-1 Infection?

2015; American Chemical Society; Volume: 6; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/acschemneuro.5b00044

1948-7193

Heather Carryl, Melanie Swang, Jerome Lawrence, Kimberly Curtis, Herman Kamboj, Koen K. A. Van Rompay, Kristina De Paris, Mark Burke,

Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms

Pediatric human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection remains a global health crisis. Children are much more susceptible to HIV-1 neurological impairments than adults, which can be exacerbated by coinfections. Neurological characteristics of pediatric HIV-1 infection suggest dysfunction in the frontal cortex as well as the hippocampus; limited MRI data indicate global cerebral atrophy, and pathological data suggest accelerated neuronal apoptosis in the cortex. An obstacle to pediatric HIV-1 research is a human representative model system. Host-species specificity of HIV-1 limits the ability to model neurological consequences of pediatric HIV-1 infection in animals. Several models have been proposed including neonatal intracranial injections of HIV-1 viral proteins in rats and perinatal simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of infant macaques. Nonhuman primate models recapitulate the complexity of pediatric HIV-1 neuropathogenesis while rodent models are able to elucidate the role specific viral proteins exert on neurodevelopment. Nonhuman primate models show similar behavioral and neuropathological characteristics to pediatric HIV-1 infection and offer a stage to investigate early viral mechanisms, latency reservoirs, and therapeutic interventions. Here we review the relative strengths and limitations of pediatric HIV-1 model systems.