HIV virus increases the proportion of patients with dementia

Australian scientists have found the reason why there is a high proportion of HIV-infected patients with dementia.

A group of scientists at the Burnet Research Institute in Melbourne, Victoria, found that the HIV virus could hide in the brain , protecting itself against the immune system's attacks and antiviral drugs (ARV). ).

This area of ​​the HIV-infected brain often causes dementia.

Researcher Lachlan Gray said that when the HIV virus penetrates into brain cells, it automatically changes in the direction of self-restraint and is almost " silent ." This is how HIV virus lurks in cells, they do not create a virus-specific protein shell, so the immune system and drugs cannot detect them.

Mr. Gray emphasized this discovery to help formulate new HIV / AIDS remedies. " We can invent drugs that restore the activity of HIV and therefore, the immune system and antiviral drugs can detect infected and removed cells from the brain, " he said.

Currently about one fifth of the total number of HIV / AIDS patients in the world suffer from dementia and this rate is increasing as new ARV drugs are prepared to help patients live longer.