HIV-1 nervous compartment and antiretroviral therapy

The aim of this paper is to study the HIV-1 nervous compartment. We observed sixteen antiretroviral therapy 'naives' patients with neurological symptoms. In all patients we performed a paired and simultaneous sample from plasma and cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) for a quantitative detection of HIV-1 RNA. Thirteen patients underwent a follow-up sample at the eighth-tenth week of treatment. All studied patients had an inflammatory disease of nervous system (NS). The different viral kinetics founded in plasma and CSF confirm the existence of an HTV-1 nervous compartment. The strict correlation between plasma and CSF viral load showes that HIV-1 nervous compartmentalization is reduced in patients with nervous inflammatory diseases, probably because of an increased permeability of blood-brain barrier.