Sustained cerebrospinal fluid viral load suppression and preserved cognitive outcome in HIV-infected people with Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy containing abacavir and AZT –…

Background: The effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy is often limited by drugs that penetrate the blood-brain barrier poorly, providing effective systemic, but not central nervous system (CNS), treatment. The constant presence of HIV-1 in the CNS may be associated with immunoactivation leading secondarily to neurological impairment. The aim of our study was to investigate whether an antiretroviral regimen including abacavir (ABC) and AZT can be used to effectively suppress HIV viral load (VL) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and improve or maintain normal neuropsychological and neurophysiologic parameters. De…