Aims: Microglia are involved in neurodegeneration, are prime targets for anti‐inflammatory therapy and are potential biomarkers of disease progression. For example, positron emission tomography imaging employing radioligands for the mitochondrial translocator protein of 18 kDa (TSPO, formerly known as the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor) is being scrutinized to detect neuroinflammation in various diseases. TSPO is presumably present in activated microglia, but may be present in other neural cells. Methods: We sought to elucidate the protein expression in normal human central nervous system, several neurological diseases (HIV encephalitis, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke) and simian immunodeficiency virus encephalitis by performing immunohistochemistry with two anti‐TSPO antibodies. Results: Although the overall parenchymal staining was minimal in normal brain, endothelial and smooth muscle cells, subpial glia, intravascular monocytes and ependymal cells were TSPO‐positive. In disease states, elevated TSPO was present in parenchymal microglia, macrophages and some hypertrophic astrocytes, but the distribution of TSPO varied depending on the disease, disease stage and proximity to the lesion or relation to infection. Staining with the two antibodies correlated well in white matter, but one antibody also stained cortical neurones. Quantitative analysis demonstrated a significant increase in TSPO in the white matter of HIV encephalitis compared with brains without encephalitis. TSPO expression was also increased in simian immunodeficiency virus encephalitis. Conclusions: This report provides the first comprehensive immunohistochemical analysis of the expression of TSPO. The results are useful for informing the usage of positron emission tomography as an imaging modality and have an impact on the potential use of TSPO as an anti‐inflammatory pharmacological target.

Tryptophan metabolism by the kynurenine pathway (KP) is important to the pathogenesis of inflammatory, infectious, and degenerative diseases. The 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK) branch of the KP is activated in macrophages and microglia, leading to the generation of 3-HK, 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3-HAA), and quinolinic acid, which are considered neurotoxic owing to their free radical-generating and N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor agonist activities. We investigated the role of 3-HAA in inflammatory and antioxidant gene expression and neurotoxicity in primary human fetal central nervous system cultures treated with cytokines (IL-1 with or without interferon-␥) or with Toll-like receptor ligands mimicking the proinflammatory central nervous system environment. Results were analyzed by microarray, Western blot, immunostain, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and neurotoxicity assays. 3-HAA suppressed glial cytokine and chemokine expression and reduced cytokine-induced neuronal death. 3-HK also suppressed cytokineinduced neuronal death. Unexpectedly, 3-HAA was highly effective in inducing in astrocytes the expression of hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1), an antioxidant enzyme with anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective properties. Indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an interferon (IFN)-␥-inducible, rate-limiting enzyme in the kynurenine pathway (KP) of tryptophan metabolism generating various downstream metabolites collectively termed "kynurenines" 1 ( Figure 1). This process is compartmentalized due to cell-specific expression of the KP enzymes. For example, kynurenine monooxygenase (KMO) is expressed in macrophages and microglia, 2-4 whereas kynurenine aminotransferase II (KAT II) is present in astrocytes.5 A well-appreciated biological activity of IDO is T-cell suppression. IDO expressed in antigen-presenting cells (dendritic cells, macrophages, and microglia) can

Insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor (IGF2R), also known as cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate (M6P) receptor, is a transmembrane glycoprotein localized in the trans-Golgi region and is involved in targeting both M6P-bearing enzymes and IGF2 to the lysosomal compartment. During development, IGF2R plays a crucial role in removing excess growth factors from both tissue and blood. Due to the perinatal lethality of the global Igf2r knockout, the function of IGF2R in adults, particularly in the CNS, is not known. We made a novel observation that IGF2R is highly expressed in microglial nodules in human brains with HIV encephalitis. In vitro, microglial IGF2R expression was uniquely enhanced by IFN␥ among the several cytokines and TLR ligands examined. Furthermore, in several in vitro models of HIV infection, including human and murine microglia, macrophages, and nonmacrophage cells, IGF2R is repeatedly shown to be a positive regulator of HIV infection. IGF2R RNAi also down-regulated the production of the IP-10 chemokine in HIV-infected human microglia. Injection of VSVg env HIV into mouse brain induced HIV p24 expression in neurons, the only cell type normally expressing IGF2R in the adult brain. Our results demonstrate a novel role for IGF2R as an inducible microglial protein involved in regulation of HIV and chemokine expression. Mice with the Csf1r-driven Igf2r knockout should be useful for the investigation of macrophage-specific IGF2R function.

Aims-Cannabinoids have been proposed for treating various neurodegenerative disorders and as adjunct therapy for HIV+ patients with neurologic sequelae. The expression of cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) has been reported in neurodegenerative diseases and in SIV encephalitis, yet the receptor expression in the CNS of HIV+ individuals is not known. Methods-An anti-CB1 antibody and two anti-CB2 antibodies were employed for immunohistochemistry in the cerebral cortex and white matter of HIV encephalitis (HIVE) and HIV-associated comorbidities, as well as control brains (HIV− and HIV+).Results-By quantitative image analysis, we observed that CB1 was increased in HIVE brains and those with comorbidities, while CB2 was significantly increased in the white matter of HIVE. Morphologically, CB1 was present in neurons, and both CB1 and CB2 were present in meningeal macrophages and subpial glia in all brains. In HIVE, CB1 was found in white matter microglia and perivascular cells, while CB2 was increased in microglia, astrocytes and perivascular macrophages. Double immunofluorescence with cell-specific markers and immunoblots on primary cultured microglia and astrocytes substantiated the glial localization of the cannabinoid receptors and specificity of the antibodies.Conclusions-Our study indicates that cannabinoid receptor expression occurs in glia in HIVE brains, and this may have ramifications for the potential use of cannabinoid ligands in HIVinfected patients.

CD45 is a membrane tyrosine phosphatase that modulates the function of the hematopoietic cells. In vitro, agonist antibodies to CD45RO or CD45RB isoforms have been shown to suppress microglial activation, but whether microglia in vivo express these isoforms in HIV encephalitis (HIVE) is unknown. Brain sections from control and HIVE were immunostained for CD45 isoforms using exon-specific antibodies (RA, RB, RC and RO). RA and RC were limited to rare lymphocytes, while RB expression was robust in microglia and inflammatory cells. RO was low in control microglia, but increased in HIVE. RO was also localized to macrophages and CD8+ T cells. Targeting CD45 in vivo with isoform-specific antibodies remains a therapeutic option for neuroinflammatory diseases. Pathol 2006;16:256-265. Brain INTRODUCTIONThe leukocyte common antigen (LCA: CD45) is a prototype transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) and is expressed in all nucleated hematopoietic cells (54). The CD45 protein exists as multiple isoforms as a result of alternative splicing of variable exons (4/A, 5/B and 6/C); the largest isoform (ABC) includes all three of these exons and the smallest isoform (O) lacks all three exons. Five different isoforms of CD45 (ABC, AB, BC, B and O) have been identified on human leukocytes and these can be recognized by antibodies specific to variable exons (A, B or C) or by αCD45RO (45). Although the extracellular domains differ among different isoforms, all forms share identical transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains including the phosphatase domains (52, 54).CD45 is one of the most abundantly expressed molecules in lymphocytes (comprising approximately 10% of all surface proteins) and is crucial in lymphocyte development and antigen signaling (2,12,23,54). Consequently, CD45 mutations are associated with severe combined immunodeficiency in mice and humans (5,28,51). In lymphocytes, CD45 is expressed in a cell subset-specific and activation-dependent manner. For instance, naïve T cells express a high molecular weight isoform (RA+/RO−) but upon activation switch to the smallest isoform (RA−/RO+) (16,31). At the cellular level, the CD45 phosphatase targets several families of proteins, including the Src family tyrosine kinases and Janus kinases (41), resulting in positive or negative signaling (2,4,54). In addition to lymphocytes, recent studies demonstrate that CD45 can modulate activation and proliferation of several inflammatory cell types including granulocytes, mast cells and monocytelineage cells, broadening its role as a regulator of inflammatory responses (8,20,35,48,57).In the central nervous system (CNS), microglia constitute a distinct glial cell population that is derived from hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow (17, 29, 42). As resident brain macrophages, microglia function as sentries, but when activated they can mediate tissue damage, a scenario considered for several CNS inflammatory disorders (10,15,27). In AIDS dementia and HIV encephalitis (HIVE), microglia and macrophages are productively infected by ...

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It is well known that infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dysregulates cell physiology, but little information is available on the consequences of HIV infection in primary macrophages and microglia. The authors examined the relationship between cell proliferation and HIV infection in primary cultures of microglia and in human central nervous system (CNS). In cultures infected with HIV (ADA and BaL), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)-mediated cell proliferation was reduced in productively infected (p24+) cells as compared to p24- cells. The reduction was observed with both Ki67 and BrdU labeling, suggesting a G1/S block. The reduction was insignificant when microglia were infected with a Vpr- mutant virus. In human CNS, proliferating (Ki67+) cells were rare but were increased in the HIV+ and HIV encephalitis (HIVE) groups compared to the HIV- group. A positive correlation between GM-CSF immunoreactivity and Ki67 counts, implicating GM-CSF as a growth factor in human CNS was found. The relationship between total macrophage (CD68+) proliferation and infected macrophage (p24+) proliferation was assessed in HIVE by double labeling. Whereas 1.2% of total CD68+ cells were Ki67+, only 0.5% of HIV p24+ cells were Ki67+ (P < .05). Furthermore, staining for CD45RB (as opposed to CD68) facilitated the identification of Ki67+ microglia, indicating that CD68 could underestimate proliferating microglia. The authors conclude that although there is increased expression of GM-CSF and increased cell proliferation in the CNS of HIV-seropositive individuals, cell proliferation in the productively infected population is actually suppressed. These data suggest that there might be a viral gain in the suppressed host cell proliferation.

This review provides a historical perspective on research performed at both the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) and the Montefiore Medical Center (MMC). It discusses how the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) has been an invaluable resource for the network of investigators at AECOM/MMC and it surveys the past and current HIV-related research projects in the Bronx and beyond.