Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Thursday, 28 November 1996, 5:24 PM EST
It has been shown over the past few years that HIV infection targets certain critical immune system cells for destruction. The immune system tries to replace these killed cells as fast as possible to keep from being compromised.
Ultimately, these CD4 cells are thought to become exhausted and die, resulting in a progression from HIV infection to full-blown AIDS. Treatment is aimed at boosting production of CD4 counts and survival is usually associated with higher CD4 levels.
But after looking at a component of the cells called telomeres, researchers from the Netherlands are proposing that HIV simply slows down the rate of production of new CD4 cells.
According to this theory, the decline in CD4 counts seen in AIDS patients before HIV treatment and the subsequent rise in cells counts after treatment may indicate that treatment is restoring the ability of the CD4 cells to function, not helping to generate new cells.
Dr. Katja C. Wolthers and colleagues from the Central Laboratory of the Netherlands Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service in Amsterdam examined blood from nine healthy people and nine HIV-infected people. They then examined the telomeres, which provide information about how many times a cell has replicated.
CD4 replication in both groups was similar, indicating that people with HIV did not have the rapid turnover of CD4 cells that one would expect them to have.
Wolthers suggests that HIV may slow down the flow at the tap, making it appear as if the cells are being killed and replaced when they may simply be hampered in their immune system activity. SOURCE: Science (1996;274:1543-1547)
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