Immuno- and Neuropathogenesis of HIV Disease: Mechanisms, Prevention, Treatment, and Cure

Dear Colleagues,

The fourth decade in the fight against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is now in progress and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic, with its many associated comorbidities, continues to present a major health crisis worldwide. Encouraging, is that, in the industrialized world, ever increasing efficacious therapeutic combination regimens have converted a hopeless and devastating clinical picture to one that is getting closer to a long-term but clinically manageable chronic human disease with still an all-to-often lethal endpoint. In contrast, in economically challenged regions of the world, HIV infection and the associated clinical problems remain an acute life threatening pandemic in the absence of the most effective combination therapies, state-of-the-art clinical care, and an effective vaccine. Despite the significant progress with regard to understanding the pathogenesis of HIV/AIDS and the development of more than 30 FDA approved therapeutic agents that have been used in numerous and very effective combination therapies to dramatically extend the average lifespan of the HIV-infected patient population, there are many avenues of research that are very needed to optimally prevent, diagnose, and treat HIV disease, and cure the HIV-infected patient population across the many subtypes of HIV infection around the world. This Special Issue will center on reviews and primary data manuscripts that focus on defining (1) new cellular and viral targets to prevent and further control HIV replication and minimize long-term toxicity; (2) viral reservoirs in the periphery including cells involved in harboring latent viral genomes, molecular mechanisms of latency, and activating and non-activating viral genotypes; (3) mechanisms to cure latently infected or activated cells; (4) events involved in transmigration of HIV-infected cells across the blood-brain barrier; (5) mechanisms that result in disruption of the blood-brain barrier; (6) interactions between the astrocytes, pericytes, brain endothelial cells and neurons that lead to central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction; (7) the impact of HIV-infected microglial cells and other cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage and their viral and cellular products on astrocyte-neuronal function that lead to impairment; (8) links between metabolic and vascular disease and HIV neuropathogenesis; and (9) the differential phenotypic and genotypic properties of HIV with respect to the spectrum of HIV CNS disease.

Prof. Dr. Brian Wigdahl
Guest Editor

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