"HIV Infection: Why the Long Latent Period?"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"HIV Infection: Why the Long Latent Period?"

Nature (11/29/90) Vol. 348, No. 6300, P. 388
Bangham, Charles R. M., and McMichael, Andrew J.

Abstract: New research suggests that progression to AIDS in HIV disease may be the result of an increase in the number of immunological variants above a critical threshold, write Charles Bangham and Andrew McMichael of Oxford University. In the journal AIDS, they report, Nowak and colleagues use a simple model to explain the long latency period for HIV in terms of variants that arise and escape destruction by the immune system. The model corresponds well with the progression of human disease, but more testing is needed to identify the most important factor leading to breakdown of immune control of HIV. If the most important factor in AIDS is the diversity of the virus, as the model suggests, researchers should examine the antigenic diversity of HIV, not the predominant HIV sequences isolated during the symptomatic phase of the virus to determine disease progression, Bangham and McMichael write.

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