These are the cells where the AIDS virus hides from drugs

by time news

The infection that causes HIV, the AIDS virus, is incurable in most cases. Only four people in the world have been completely cured, and thanks to an extremely dangerous therapy such as a special bone marrow transplant indicated for the treatment of their cancer. Guilt that HIV won’t go awayathe so-called reservoirs of the virus have it, sanctuaries where HIV hides from treatments.

Scientists know that to develop treatments that may one day eliminate HIV infection entirely, they need to not only identify all the places where the virus can hide its genetic code, but also how to attack them.

Now, in a study using blood samples from HIV-infected men and women on long-term suppression therapy, a team led by Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists presents new evidence that one such stable reservoir of genomes HIV seems to be located in circulating white blood cells called monocytes.

Los monocytes are short-lived circulating immune cells that are a precursor to macrophages, immune cells capable of engulfing and destroying viruses, bacteria, and other cells foreign to the host.

In the study now published in Nature Microbiology, the researchers found evidence that blood samples from people with HIV undergoing long-term standard antiretroviral therapy contained monocytes harboring stable HIV DNA capable of infecting cells. neighboring cells.

These findings, he writes in his paper, may provide a new pathway to improve therapies and eventually cure HIV, which affects more than 34 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Current antiretroviral drugs can successfully suppress HIV to nearly undetectable levels, but have not resulted in complete eradication of the virus.

“We do not know how relevant these monocytes and macrophages are for the eradication of HIV, but our results suggest that we must continue in this line of research to understand their role in this disease,” he says. Janice Clementsfrom Johns Hopkins University.

Scientists have long known that HIV most often hides its genome in a type of immune cell called a CD4+ T cell. These hiding places are known as sanctuaries.

“To eradicate HIV, the goal is to find biomarkers for the cells that harbor the HIV genome and kill those cells,” explains Professor Rebecca Veenhuis.

To further explore the role of monocytes and macrophages in the circulating blood as reservoirs of HIV, the scientists obtained blood samples between 2018 and 2022 from 10 HIV-positive men who had been on antiretroviral treatment for years.

They first extracted blood cells from the samples and grew the cells in the laboratory. Monocytes typically transform very rapidly, in as little as three days, into macrophages, producing monocyte-derived macrophages.

To eradicate HIV, the goal is to find biomarkers for the cells that harbor the HIV genome and kill those cells.

Rebecca Veenhouse

Universidad Johns Hopkins

All 10 had detectable HIV DNA in their macrophage-turned monocytes, but at levels 10 times lower than that found in their CD4+ T cells, the now-known reservoir of HIV.

Next, to determine whether HIV genomes were present in monocytes prior to macrophage differentiation, the team used an experimental assay to detect intact HIV genomes in monocytes.

Thus, they used blood samples taken from another group of 30 people (eight men from the first group and 22 women) with HIV, also treated with standard antiretroviral therapy. They found HIV DNA in the CD4+ T cells and monocytes of all 30 participants..

In addition, they were also able to isolate HIV produced by infected monocytes from half of the research participants. Virus extracted from these cells was capable of infecting CD4+ T cells.

Three of the participants had their blood tested multiple times during the four-year study period, and each time, the scientists found HIV DNA and infectious virus produced by its monocyte-derived macrophages. “These results suggest that monocytes may be a stable reservoir of HIV,” says Clements.

You may also like

Leave a Comment