Owed a direct correlation between microglial activation/infection and cognitive decline [19]. Studies have found microglial HIV infection as central in exacerbating HIV dementia [20,21]. Importantly, neuronal dysfunction and death in HIV infection results from cytokine stimulation, but especially several cytokine-mediated apoptotic mechanisms emanating from microglia. Thus microglial cytokine prod
Molecules including major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II and CD40 [15]. Microglia expressing MHC II induce CD4+ T cells to generate IFN-g and TNF-a [16]. In the case of both HAD and AD, this response is considered harmful to the brain and in both diseases TNFa is elevated to neurotoxic levels while only in HAD is IFN-g is prominently elevated [14]. In HIV associated dementia (HAD; also known