Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4351043 Neuroscience Letters 2006 5 Pages PDF
Abstract

HIV-1 neurotoxic proteins (Tat, gp120) are believed to play a major role in pathogenesis of dementia in a significant portion of the AIDS patient population. Dopaminergic systems appear to be particularly important in HIV-associated dementia. In the current studies, we determined that primary cell cultures prepared from the midbrain of 18-day-old rat fetuses are sensitive to Tat neurotoxicity and investigated the possible effects of Tat on DAT-specific ligand binding and DAT immunoreactivity in rat fetal midbrain cultures. We found that Tat neurotoxicity was associated with a significant decrease in [3H]WIN 35428 binding. Immunostaining of cell cultures with antibodies recognizing the C-end epitope of DAT did not reveal significant changes in DAT immunoreactivity. The results of this study implicate involvement of monoamine transmission systems in HIV-associated dementia.

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