Scientists a step closer to understanding AIDS immunity
I don’t usually get my science news from the Portuguese paper but this article caught my eye. Amazingly I didn’t pick this up in the huge amount of science and immunology feeds I subscribe to but I digress.
It seems that researchers are a step closer to understanding how HIV seropositive individuals can live with the virus for years with out taking antiretroviral drugs and contracting AIDS.
This small population of under 0,2 percent happens to have a way to keep their CD4+ count at a normal level while the CD8+ lymphocytes stick to their job maintaining viral levels as low as 50 viruses per milliliter of blood. Normally this is not the case and CD8+ lymphocytes can’t keep up with the viral activity.
I have always thought that the key to understanding how to overcome or prevent HIV/AIDS was to study these individuals that seem to be immune. This is not a simple virus but I do think science is making progress, one small step at a time.
[Image: Wikipedia:HIV]
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