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One more step towards effective treatment of HIV / AIDS
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Gladstone University scientists have brought us one step closer to understanding and overcoming one of the least researched mechanisms of HIV infection. They developed a method for accurately monitoring the life cycle of individual cells infected with HIV, which provokes AIDS.
Researcher Leor Weinberger announced the development of a device by which it will be possible to recognize the blood components and calculate the number of CD4 cells or T-lymphocytes that indicate the activity of HIV. This device will help to understand what the latent period of the virus is after the patient starts antiretroviral therapy. Unfortunately, this type of treatment does not kill the virus, but only "frightens" it, which means a lifelong medication fight against the main enemy - AIDS. If you stop therapy, then the "sleeping" virus wakes up and begins to attack the body's immune system.
The main strategic weapon against this terrible disease is understanding the mechanism of the virus. Then there will be an opportunity to eradicate him from the body and thus heal.
"The latent period of HIV infection is perhaps the greatest obstacle to the destruction of the HIV / AIDS virus," says Dr. Weinberger, who is also a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Carolina, San Francisco. - At the moment, all methods by which scientists around the world are trying to identify viral mechanisms are ineffective. Our methodology is an understandable path that leads to an understanding of how the "sleeping" HIV adapts to life within a single cell. We track individual cells, which usually was very difficult to monitor. "
Single-frame microscopy, used to collect information about a single cell, has recently helped track some viral infections and determine the reasons for developing resistance to treatment. However, to observe HIV-infected cells, especially during the latent period of infection, this technique proved to be inappropriate, as these cells are mobile and evasive, they attack neighboring cells, join and detach from them.
A team of researchers led by Dr. Weinberger managed to develop a smart system that limits the mobility of HIV-infected cells by placing them in special tiny tubules.
"First we immerse the cells in a small well, where they settle to the bottom. The well is filled with nutrients that support the functional state of the cells, "explains Brandon Razuki, one of the authors of the study, a graduate student at Gladstone University.
"Then we tilt the device, and the cells get out of the well into the microscopic tubules connected to it. Returning the device to the vertical position, we get about 25 cells blocked inside each tubule. "
Thus, the cells remain in place, and scientists can observe the activity of a single cell without interference. "This means that we now have the opportunity to analyze the full cycle of HIV infection using the example of a single cell, especially in the latent period," says Dr. Weinberger.
"With this new knowledge, we hope to develop a treatment system that will detect a latent virus and remove it from the patient's body once and for all," the study leader concluded.
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