{"id":135418,"date":"2026-09-10T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=135418"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:44:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T02:44:53","slug":"new-research-offers-avenue-to-explore-relationship-between-alzheimers-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/09\/10\/new-research-offers-avenue-to-explore-relationship-between-alzheimers-hiv\/","title":{"rendered":"New research offers avenue to explore relationship between Alzheimer\u2019s, HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UNMC researchers have published an article in \u201cAlzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association\u201d<\/a> detailing the creation of an animal model that helps resolve questions about the relationship between HIV and Alzheimer\u2019s disease (AD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work can serve as a guide for the development of novel therapeutics to halt memory loss — antiretroviral drugs have shown strong potential to prevent and slow progression of both HIV and AD. Specific classes of HIV medications suppress brain inflammation and genetic mutations linked to Alzheimer’s pathology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The model demonstrates how the virus that drives the root cause of AD — the amyloid beta proteins that clump together to form sticky amyloid plaques \u2013 initiate a complex chain that, with other disease partners, drives nerve cell injury and cognitive impairments for AD pathology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corresponding authors Pravin Yeapuri, PhD, and Howard Gendelman, MD, of the UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience (PEN), say the study is the culmination of decades of work on brain diseases following the creation of UNMC’s Center for Neurovirology and Neurodegenerative Disorders in 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until now, the link between the two disease entities was obscure. But the paper has far-reaching implications, Dr. Yeapuri said, adding \u201cResearch has already shown that certain HIV medications (nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or NRTIs) may both lower the risk of Alzheimer\u2019s disease and significantly reduce brain inflammation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNMC research team, which included Shaurav Bhattarai, PhD, developed a unique animal model to study questions such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n