When Human Immunodeficiency Virus Meets Chemokines

Authors: Italo Mocchetti Lee A Campbell G Jean Harry Valeriya Avdoshina

Publish Date: 2012/04/15

Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 118-131

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Abstract

Chemokines are chemotactic cytokines that were originally discovered as promoters of leukocyte proliferation and mobility In recent years however evidence has demonstrated constitutive expression of chemokines and chemokine receptors in a variety of cells in the central and peripheral nervous system and has proposed a role for chemokines in neurodegenerative diseases characterized by inflammation and microglia proliferation In addition chemokine receptors and in particular CXCR4 and CCR5 mediate human immunodeficiency virus type 1 HIV infection of immunocompetent cells as well as microglia Subsequently HIV through a variety of mechanisms promotes synaptodendritic alterations and neuronal loss that ultimately lead to motor and cognitive impairments These events are accompanied by microglia activation Nevertheless a microgliamediated mechanism of neuronal degeneration alone cannot fully explain some of the pathological features of HIV infected brain such as synaptic simplification In this article we present evidence that some of the microglia responses to HIV are beneficial and neuroprotective These include the ability of microglia to release antiinflammatory cytokines to remove dying cells and to promote axonal sproutingThis work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse 1R01DA026174 and 1F31DA032282 and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 1R21NS074916 and the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences The authors have no conflict of interest to declare The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and they do not represent the views or policies of the National Toxicology Program or National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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