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HIV-1 Tat neurotoxicity in primary cultures of rat midbrain fetal neurons: changes in dopamine transporter binding and immunoreactivity.

Aksenova MV, Silvers JM, Aksenov MY, Nath A, Ray PD, Mactutus CF, Booze RM

Department of Psychology, Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, University of South Carolina, 1512 Pendleton St, Columbia, 29208, USA. aksenova@gwm.sc.edu

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.

Published 13 February 2006 in Neurosci Lett, 395(3): 235-9.
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