IUBio

The immune system and HIV.

George M. Carter gmc0 at ix.netcom.com
Sun Apr 13 20:28:06 EST 1997


wharram at icon.co.za (Kevin Wharram) wrote:

>I read an article that says, HIV does not kill the immune sytem but
>rather the immune sytem gets exhausted by trying to eliminate the
>virus. " Is this true"?

This is a very good question. The standard model has it that HIV kills
T-cells (CD4+ lymphocytes, specifically). It infects, produces new
virions, buds out, the cell dies. Fewer and fewer CD4 cells, less
immune system. The body cannot fight off the opportunistic infections
which ultimately are what kill people.

I call this the simple cytopathic model. There's only one problem:
it's inadequate. Many uninfected CD4 cells die. Macrophages are
infected. The inflammatory immune response is part of the problem that
destroys lymphatic tissue, spleen, thymus.

The starting point is HIV. Some of its proteins are also culprits in
further damage (e.g., gp120). The therapeutic implications of this
realization are that suppressing HIV production is one thing--but one
must also modulate the aberrant immune response. Partially, this may
be accomplished by simply feeding people: this is clearly underscored
by widespread observations of nutrient deficiencies even early in
infection. There are many clinically unexplored options for offsetting
aberrant host reponse. 

		George M. Carter





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