Science: challenge the routine! Inhibition rather than eradication of HIV can achieve functional cure of AIDS

December 25, 2019 / Biovalley BIOON / - -- the search for ways to treat AIDS is partly focused on finding ways to eradicate HIV infected cells Now, in a new study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States found that this method may not be necessary for the cure of functional aids In a study of HIV positive patients who can co-exist with HIV without treatment, they found that their lymphocytes can inhibit the virus, but not kill HIV infected cells The related research results were recently published in the Journal of Science Translational Medicine The title of the paper is "elite control of HIV is associated with distinct functional and translational signatures in lymphoid tissue CD8 + T cells" HIV-1 from J Roberto Trujillo / Wikipedia AIDS is an ongoing global health problem, and there is no vaccine or cure HIV infection usually leads to the loss of CD4 + T cells, which, as a kind of leukocyte, attack and destroy the infection together with CD8 + T cells The fewer CD4 + T cells a person has, the more severe the symptoms However, less than 1% of HIV positive patients have stable CD4 + T cell count and undetectable HIV viremia, so they can coexist with the virus without treatment Compared with most HIV positive people, this group of people called the elite controller has more effective CD8 + T cells, which kill the virus In the new study, the researchers hope to find out exactly how CD8 + T cells in elite controls prevent HIV from replicating and progressing to AIDS They collected blood samples and lymph node biopsies from a total of 51 HIV positive patients, including 12 elite controllers, from three locations in the United States and Mexico Using the single cell RNA sequencing method used to study individual cells, the researchers found that the lymphoid tissues of elite controllers had more HIV specific CD8 + T cells, but these cells were so-called insoluble cells, indicating that they did not kill the cells infected with HIV On the contrary, CD8 + T cells in these elite controllers have unique transcriptional profiles and can inhibit HIV replication through enhanced ribosome function, which means they perform better in protein translation This leads to more numbers and types of cytokines, and enhances the versatility of these cells Marcus buggert, assistant professor of medicine at Karolinska Institute, said: "these findings run counter to the HIV control model that focuses on killing HIV infected cells to find a cure Although these strategies may still work, our study supports a model in which viral inhibition, rather than eradication, can actually have a functional healing effect " (BIOON Com) reference: 1 Son Nguyen et al Elite control of HIV is associated with distinct functional and translational signatures in lymphoid tissue CD8 + T cells Science Translational Medicine, 2019, doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aax4077 2.Researchers support new strategies for HIV control https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-12-strategies-hiv.html