How does HIV kill most cells?

  If the T cell, HIV (red dot) is directly transferred to the cell, the cell will be destroyed. HIV is the most studied virus in the world, but this discovery surprised us. It has been found that the virus can pump directly from one cell to another through the main connection point between two cells, thereby infecting and killing immune cells.

  Until recently, I believe that HIV mainly circulates in the blood and infects and destroys the important immune cells CD4T cells. According to this classic model, the virus infects T cells, changes the cell mechanism, replicates thousands of individuals into the blood, and eventually consumes and kills host cells.

  This idea is based on a relatively simple method to study viruses in the blood. New research methods show that this is only part of the story. Research has shown that the Nagrini team at the University of California, San Francisco used tissue culture methods to pump large amounts of virus directly from one CD4 T cell to another. This process seems to kill most of the CD4 cells, rather than a single virus infection.

  Send block

  HIV invades neighboring cells by modifying the cell system. Immune synapses are short-term connections between immune cells that can transmit chemical information. HIV usually flows from an infected CD4 cell to another uninfected cell.

  There is evidence that this process is hundreds or thousands of times more effective than traditional external infection models. Green said that 95% of the CD4 cells that died during the study were infected in this way, not a virus.

  This new understanding also opens up new ways to fight the virus and affects how to choose drugs to treat this disease. Walter of Yale University is studying the cell-to-cell transmission of HIV. He said that most antiretroviral drugs are effective for both infection methods, but they are more effective at allowing the virus to penetrate directly into cells. Said. These drugs can be overwhelming and not effective.

  However, this discovery may pave the way for new treatments. The HIV virus in monkeys can also spread directly from cell to cell, but monkeys can tolerate this process.

  Unlike humans, monkey CD4 cells can tolerate multiple viruses, and Green believes that they have mutated to avoid self-destruction. He hopes that anti-inflammatory drugs can be used to mimic human CD4 cells. In the experimental phase, the potential drug candidate VX-765 looks promising. Look for

  Vaccine Kenneth Meyer of Fenway College in Boston said that a better understanding of how the virus spreads directly from cell to cell may be an important part of the AIDS puzzle. Yes, he said that ignoring this type of communication can at least partially explain the failure of recent vaccine research. The HIV vaccine allows the body to fight the virus by producing antibodies. However, studies have shown that different types of antibodies are needed to kill viruses, and they can only kill intracellular viruses floating freely in the body. Viruses hidden in cells may help avoid damage and may help develop antibodies against vaccines. Karl Defenbach of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, said that better vaccine candidates are needed to better understand how to prevent cell infections. He said: "Is the vaccine ineffective in cell-to-cell transmission? I don't know the answer, because there is no safe, effective and durable HIV vaccine to understand the exact mechanism."