Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - July 22, 2009
Claire Keeton
HIV scientists in KwaZulu-Natal are helping to crack the puzzle of why some HIV-positive people live for 30 years without drugs and others die within six months if not treated.
The research is being done in conjunction with international partners, including the Harvard Medical School.
Bruce Walker, an immunologist and medicine professor at the medical school, said the research would contribute to developing a successful vaccine.
"We are looking at how the body tries to fight HIV infection."
People who live with the virus for a lengthy period and do not need treatment are called "elite controllers".
"The immune system [of elite controllers] appears to cripple the virus and so it is less able to cause disease," Walker said.
Professor Alan Bernstein, the executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, said elite controllers have certain type of proteins on the surface of their cells, which are particularly good at alerting the immune system to resist the virus.
Elite controllers also have "CD8 killer cells" that are particularly effective at destroying HIV.
Walker explained that elite controllers were being identified in KwaZulu-Natal and studies of them would add to long-running international research.
"In the last five years we have been working vigorously with these elite controllers," Walker said.
Bernstein added : "They are finding signs suggesting a way forward. There is a new mood of optimism in the search for an Aids vaccine."
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