Long-term HIV-1 Tat Expression in the Brain Led to Neurobehavioral, Pathological, and Epigenetic Changes Reminiscent of Accelerated Aging

Xiaojie Zhao, Yan Fan, Philip H. Vann, Jessica M. Wong, Nathalie Sumien, Johnny J. He

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

HIV infects the central nervous system and causes HIV/neuroAIDS, which is predominantly manifested in the form of mild cognitive and motor disorder in the era of combination antiretroviral therapy. HIV Tat protein is known to be a major pathogenic factor for HIV/neuroAIDS through a myriad of direct and indirect mechanisms. However, most, if not all of studies involve short-time exposure of recombinant Tat protein in vitro or short-term Tat expression in vivo. In this study, we took advantage of the doxycycline-inducible brain-specific HIV-1 Tat transgenic mouse model, fed the animals for 12 months, and assessed behavioral, pathological, and epigenetic changes in these mice. Long-term Tat expression led to poorer short-and long-term memory, lower locomotor activity and impaired coordination and balance ability, increased astrocyte activation and compromised neuronal integrity, and decreased global genomic DNA methylation. There were sex- and brain region-dependent differences in behaviors, pathologies, and epigenetic changes resulting from long-term Tat expression. All these changes are reminiscent of accelerated aging, raising the possibility that HIV Tat contributes, at least in part, to HIV infection-associated accelerated aging in HIV-infected individuals. These findings also suggest another utility of this model for HIV infection-associated accelerated aging studies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)93-107
Number of pages15
JournalAging and Disease
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Feb 2020

Keywords

  • Accelerated aging
  • DNA methylation
  • DNA methyltransferases
  • HIV-1 Tat

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