14 DAY TRIAL // The HIV virus uses the brain as its hiding place, according to studies of the spinal fluid of patients under HIV treatment, a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, concludes.
Researchers say that about 10 percent of patients had traces of the virus in their spinal fluid nut no sign of it in the blood, and unfortunately this is a higher percentage than they expected.
The thesis includes two studies of which one on 15 patients that have been effectively treated for many years.
Even though the studies' results were better than if the patients had not been medicated, 60 percent of them had inflammations in their spinal fluid, AlphaGalileo reports.
“In another study of around 70 patients who had also received anti-HIV drugs, we found HIV in the spinal fluid of around 10% of the patients, even though the virus was not measurable in the blood, which is a significantly higher proportion than previously realized,” says Arvid Edén, doctor and researcher at the Institute of Biomedicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
These two studies suggest that the current HIV treatment is unable to suppress entirely the effects of the virus in the brain, even though it is uncertain that the residual inflammation or small quantities of the HIV in the spinal fluid of some patients means that, in the future, there is a risk of complications.
Even though there are anti-HIV drugs that are effective as they stop the immune system from being compromised and they prevent AIDS as well as the multiplication of the virus, HIV also infects the brain and if this infection remains untreated, it can cause severe damage.
Dr Edén says that “Antiviral treatment in the brain is complicated by a number of factors, partly because it is surrounded by a protective barrier that affects how well medicines get in.
“This means that the brain can act as a reservoir where treatment of the virus may be less effective.
“In my opinion, we need to take into account the effects in the brain when developing new drugs and treatment strategies for HIV infection,” he adds.