Fwd: Well-Armed Immune Cells Help Long-Term Non-Progressors Contain HIV

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From: niaid@...Reply-to: NIAIDSupport@...To: powertx@...Sent: 12/4/2008 12:00:38 P.M. Central Standard TimeSubj: Well-Armed Immune Cells Help Long-Term Non-Progressors Contain HIV

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December 4, 2008

Well-Armed Immune Cells Help Long-Term Non-Progressors Contain HIV

To help develop an effective HIV vaccine, researchers are trying to better understand how the immune systems of a small minority of HIV-infected people known as long-term non-progressors (LTNPs) contain the virus naturally. CD8+ T cells, which kill cells infected with HIV, enable LTNPs to control HIV, but it has been unclear how CD8+ T cells mediate that control so effectively. A new report shows that the ability to stockpile two molecular weapons makes the HIV-specific CD8+ T cells of LTNPs superior cellular killers.

When CD8+ T cells kill HIV-infected cells, a protein, perforin, made by the CD8+ T cells punches holes in the infected cells. Then a second protein, granzyme B, penetrates those holes and causes the cells to die. Previously, the researchers found that HIV-specific CD8+ T cells of progressors, unlike those of LTNPs, make little perforin when they encounter an HIV-infected cell. It remained unclear, however, whether this deficiency explained why HIV-specific CD8+ T cells of progressors are poor killers.

The current study demonstrates a direct relationship between the quantity of both perforin and granzyme B that CD8+ T cells accumulate over time and the ability of CD8+ T cells to eliminate HIV-infected cells. This discovery significantly advances the understanding of the cellular mechanisms unique to LTNPs that explain why their immune systems, unlike those of the majority of HIV-infected people, can control HIV without antiretroviral therapy.

According to the NIAID scientists, their results also suggest that an HIV vaccine might control virus replication if it could stimulate HIV-specific CD8+ T cells to robustly stock and rapidly deliver perforin and granzyme B to HIV-infected cells.

For more information, go to http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2008/LTNPs.htm.

NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—The Nation's Medical Research Agency—includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

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News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www3.niaid.nih.gov.

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