Attention: Ending HIV’s latent status

      recent, AIDS There are frequent battle reports in the research field. First, scientists from Rockefeller University in the United States claimed to have found vaccine Using a new method, a couple of scientists from the State University of New Jersey in the United States later claimed to have found the virus that causes the production of antibodies against multiple types of HIV.

　　The following is a brief introduction for you:

　　Traditional therapy in trouble

　　Until now, AIDS treatment has been stagnant, with exciting drug cocktails unable to do anything to stop it, and no antiretroviral therapy really reaching the critical points.

　　Now, scientists have successfully found where the HIV virus lurks. The breakthrough opens a new door to what has been a frustrating years of treating HIV. “Our treatment strategy is somewhat similar to that used to treat leukemia, using targeted chemotherapy along with targeted immune system therapy. This would potentially destroy virus-carrying cells while giving the immune system enough time to regenerate healthy cell. ”said Dr. Serkaly of the University of Montreal. This study confirmed for the first time that the reason why AIDS cannot be cured is because of the existence of HIV latent areas.

　　Find where the virus lies”

　　The key to curing AIDS is to find where the HIV virus "lurks". Researchers say they have found this hiding place, known as memory T cells. This is a type of human immune cell that plays an important role in the immune system. There are two main types of T cells in the human body, one of which is called CD4 cells. These CD4 cells are also called the "helping hands" of the immune system and can direct the body to fight against microorganisms, such as viruses.

　　“The reason why HIV latent cells exist is not because antiretroviral drugs are not effective enough, but because the virus exists in two different types of immune cells, CD4 memory cells. ”Ruding said. “HIV reservoirs in the human body come in many forms, each requiring specific treatments to eliminate them. ”

　　HIV attaches to CD4 cells, enters the CD4 cell, and infects it. When a person is infected with HIV, the virus creates more virus cells in the infected person's immune system, turning it into a virus-producing factory. HIV will continue to replicate and CD4 cells will be destroyed. The immune system will create new immune cells to replace the dead ones, but the newly created immune cells are still not immune to HIV infection. Even if a person infected with HIV feels fine and has no symptoms, hundreds of millions of CD4 cells may have been destroyed by this time. CD4 is the most important immune cell. Once an infected person loses a large number of CD4 cells, the entire immune system will suffer a fatal blow and will be susceptible to various diseases. disease infections have lost resistance.

　　Viruses and cells are closely related

　　Once the virus lurks in memory T cells and generates a potential "viral reservoir", it also becomes very dependent on the latter: the cell lives, the virus lives, the cell dies, and the virus dies. The proliferation of viruses depends entirely on cell division. This dependence has inspired scientists to treat AIDS through chemotherapy and other methods. As long as the immune cells are killed, the highly adaptable or latent HIV virus can be killed. Existing cocktail therapies can kill viruses circulating throughout the body, but they cannot yet reach the viruses lurking in these virus reservoirs.

　　“We now have completely new treatments for the HIV virus. ”"Basic and clinical The combination of sex therapy can lead to surprising results, with thousands of new, latent aspects of these viruses eventually coming to light. ”

　　It will take years of research and testing before these new treatments can be officially launched and truly cure patients. However, this report has provided a valuable road map for work. This is a blueprint that laboratories and scientific research institutions around the world can use.

　　AIDS research has been very busy recently

　　AIDS research has been going on for decades. The United States’ annual investment in AIDS vaccine research accounts for one-third of its clinical research, but it has always stalled. Even with the emergence of antiretroviral therapies such as cocktail therapy, there has been no major breakthrough. Especially after Merck announced that it had failed to develop an AIDS vaccine, people exclaimed, “There will never be a vaccine for AIDS! ”Completely lost confidence in AIDS research.

　　Surprisingly, however, the field of AIDS research is quite active. Rutgers University scientists Arnold and his wife (Gail & ； Eddy Arnold, with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, conducted a meaningful experiment. They took the part of HIV that allows the virus to enter cells and put it in a rhinovirus, a cold virus) and inject experimental animals with an immunizer against this cold virus. It was found that the antibodies produced by the animals produced immune effects against either single or multiple variants of HIV viruses.

　　Researchers at Rockefeller University in the United States started with some antibodies produced in the body that can inhibit the regeneration of HIV. By studying the natural immunity of HIV, they conducted reverse engineering research and identified a method for blood cells that produce HIV-specific antibodies.