Neurology of AIDS

This book is a comprehensive textbook of the neurological, behavioural, motor, sensory, cognitive, psychiatric, developmental and basic research performed on HIV-1 infection of the nervous system. The contributors represent some of the foremost clinical and basic science investigators in the field of NeuroAIDS worldwide. Particular emphasis is placed on current thinking with regard to disease pathogenesis, patient care, and the prospects for the future.

Human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 (HIV-1) infection can often lead to a number of neurological events including peripheral neuropathy, myopathy, vacuolar myelopathy; and cognitive, motor and behaviour abnormalities. The mechanisms by which the virus invades the nervous system and induces neurological deficits are the focal points of this book. Such topics are covered from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside. Considerable emphasis is placed in how research is performed at the
molecular, cellular, animal model and patient levels. The work includes considerable emphasis on the epidemiology, psychological and psychiatric aspects of the disease complex. A complete section on the clinical aspects of disease is included, as a first time effort using patients to describe disease manifestations rather than physicians or researchers. The emerging new fields of genomics and proteomics have begun to better define the host factors that permit active viral production in the
brain as
well as lead to a secretion of a plethora of inflammatory and cytotoxic factors that lead to neuronal injury and subsequent death. Such processes not only define AIDS Neurology but also are the underbelly of most neurodegenerative disorders including, but not limited to, Alzheimer s and Parkinson s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Huntington s disease.

Significant advances in antiretroviral viral therapy have markedly diminished the incidence of HIV-1 associated dementia (HAD) while peripheral neuropathy remains a common disorder. Neuropsychological methods to monitor cognitive impairments are more precise, and as patients live longer with disease more subtle neurological manifestations of disease have emerged. Incredible advances in studies of viral neuropathogenesis, diagnostics, and therapeutics for HAD and much more are covered in the
book. A number of germane questions have been addressed in a comprehensive manner including issues relating to HIV-1 neurovirulence and neurotropism, cellular factors influencing viral replication, therapeutic challenges, and the changing epidemiological patterns of disease including peripheral neuropathy.