Current Situation and Prospect of HIV-Associated neurocognitive Disorder Research in China: Epidemiology, Research, Diagnosis, and Treatment Status

Standards of HIV/AIDS prevention and control in some areas of China are still poor. People live longer with the use of therapeutic drugs, which may lead to an increase in the number of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). However, only a few multicenter and large-scale studies investigating the prevalence and incidence of HAND have been undertaken in China. While the number of HIV/AIDS cases in China is still large, the prevalence of HAND is remains unclear. The diagnosis of HAND in China is mainly based on the international diagnostic scale, to which Chinese features are added. At present, five classes of antiretroviral therapy drugs widely used in China: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-NRTIs (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors, integrase inhibitors, and membrane fusion inhibitors (FIs). There is no specific treatment or drug for HAND in China. Efforts are needed in the following aspects: trying to understand more epidemic features of HAND in China; formulating a unified neuropsychological scale with Chinese characteristics to diagnose HAND and adopt new approaches to identify different stages of HAND; early stage (reversible) accurate hierarchical prediction and diagnosis, combined with artificial intelligence to improve the work efficiency of doctors, and to solve the failure of outpatient diagnosis cases (asymptomatic patients); and exploring and establishing a perfect system for target treatment with HAND.