Rare HIV-positive individuals shed light on how body could effectively handle infection
Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 13:20
in Health & Medicine
Although untreated HIV infection eventually results in immunodeficiency (AIDS), a small group of people infected with the virus, called elite suppressors (0.5 percent of all HIV-infected individuals), are naturally able to control infection in the absence of antiretroviral therapy, or HAART. Elite suppressors and HIV- infected individuals treated with HAART have similar levels of virus in the blood stream. However, levels of HIV integrated into immune cells are much lower in elite suppressors compared to levels in cells from HIV-infected individuals on HAART, according to a study by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers published in PLoS Pathogens...