AEGiS-AP: Immune cells that hunt HIV are found: Cells are discovered in African prostitutes who test negative for virus.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1994. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Immune cells that hunt HIV are found: Cells are discovered in African prostitutes who test negative for virus.

The Associated Press, Saturday, December 31, 1994

NEW YORK - HIV-hunting blood cells may play a big role in protecting some African prostitutes from infection with the AIDS virus, a small study suggests.

The results imply that creating those cells may be an important goal in developing an AIDS vaccine.

Scientists studied prostitutes in Gambia who used condoms infrequently with their customers and only rarely with their regular sexual partners. They may be exposed to the human immunodeficiency virus at least once a month, researchers said.

In a group of six prostitutes who showed no sign of HIV infection despite their high risk, three were found to have a type of immune-system cell that can kill other cells infected with HIV. So this kind of cell may play a central role in resisting HIV infection, the researchers said.

The killer cells are called HIV-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. Scientists had previously found these cells in HIV-infected people without AIDS, and some researchers suspect that the cells may help keep those people healthy.

The prostitutes' immune systems probably created the cells in response to HIV exposure, the researchers said.

The women may have first encountered and somehow fought off HIV-2, a less-dangerous form of the virus than HIV-1, and then built up immunity to both HIV virus types.

Or perhaps their first HIV encounter was with a defective virus or led to only a low-level infection the women were able to eliminate, study co-author Dr. Sarah Rowland-Jones of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University said Thursday.

The work is reported in the January issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Development of AIDS vaccines has traditionally focused on stimulating production of proteins called antibodies to attack HIV, although some work is aimed at mobilizing immune-system cells.

Copyright (c) 1994 - The Associated Press. Reproduced by permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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