Chun-Xia Li1,
Amelia Komery2, James G. Herndon2, Francis J. Novembre3,
Xiaodong Zhang1, 2
1Yerkes
Imaging Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University,
Atlanta, GA, United States; 2Division of Neuropharmacology and
Neurologic Diseases, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory
University, Atlanta, GA, United States; 3Divisions of Microbiology
and Immunology, Yerkes National
Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
Magnetization transfer (MT) imaging has been demonstrated to be a robust approach to characterize brain injury in HIV patients. In the present study, MT ratio (MTR) was used to detect longitudinal changes in the monkey brains after Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection. It is found that MTR decreased progressively in the cortical and subcortical regions during SIV infection, and the significant reduction in the cortical region was observed in the late study period in this pilot study. The results validate the MRI findings in HIV patients that MT imaging is a robust means to access the brain abnormities due to HIV infection.