The role of HIV infection of astrocytes in the development of HIV associated dementia

在人类免疫缺陷病毒(HIV)感染的晚期，痴呆症是一个极其常见的问题。艾滋病毒相关痴呆症是40岁以下人群中最常见的痴呆症原因。尽管开发了非常好的药物来攻击病毒，但与艾滋病毒相关的痴呆症仍然是一个主要的临床问题。我们正在研究为什么一些感染艾滋病毒的人会变得精神错乱，而另一些人不会。我们还在研究如何最好地预防痴呆症的发展。我们认为，星形胶质细胞(一种支持神经元的重要脑细胞)在HIV相关性痴呆的发展过程中发挥着非常重要的作用。随着对导致痴呆症的步骤有了更好的了解，我们可以更好地计划治疗，以防止艾滋病毒-艾滋病这一毁灭性并发症的发展。

Dementia is an extremely common problem in the late stages of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. HIV-associated dementia is the most common cause of dementia in people under 40 years of age. Despite the development of very good drugs to attack the virus, HIV-associaed dementia continues to be a major clinical problem. We are looking at the reasons why some people infected with HIV become demented and others do not. We are also looking at how best to prevent the development of dementia. We believe that astrocytes (an important brain cell that supports neurons) play a very important role in the development of HIV-associated dementia. With an improved understanding of the steps leading to dementia we can better plan treatments to prevent the development of this devastating complication of HIV-AIDS.