Book Description

During the past two decades, the world scientific community has witnessed major achievements in our understanding of the pathogenesis of HIV infection of the nervous system and HIV-Associated Dementia (HAD). Despite these giant gains, nervous system involvement during AIDS remains a relentlessly progressive disease with a deadly fate in many cases. This book on NeuroAIDS provides a unique resource for both general neurologists as well as basic neuroscientists with profound interests for research on NeuroAIDS. This book has special emphasis on the mechanisms of disease development and progression of HIV-infected patients with NeuroAIDS. The contributors have provided the readers with comprehensive reviews on clinical manifestations of HAD, mechanisms of HIV entry into the central nervous system, the role of cytokines and chemokines in pathogenesis of NeuroAIDS, drug abuse and NeuroAIDS, virus load in HAD, allostasis in HIV and AIDS, stroke in AIDS patients, and neuroimaging of HIV infection of the central nervous system. In addition, there are chapters on Varicella Zoster virus infection of HIV-seropositive and AIDS patients, as well as the molecular basis for opioids and AIDS virus interactions.