High Viral Load in HIV-Infected People Linked to Innate Immune Cell Dysfunction

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) gradually attacks the immune system, which is our body's natural defense against illness. Individuals infected with HIV exhibit both severe immune deficiency and aberrant inflammation. This results in susceptibility to secondary infection as the disease progresses.

HIV-associated deficiencies in adaptive immune responses have been well described; however, the effects of HIV on innate immune responses are not fully understood. A new study in JCI Insight demonstrates that a high viral load associates with a dampened inflammatory response in innate immune cells from HIV-infected individuals.

Eileen Scully, Marcus Altfeld, and colleagues from the Ragon Institute and the Heinrich Pette Institute evaluated multiple samples taken from a cohort of patients prior to and after initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART).

‘A high viral load is associated with a dampened inflammatory response in innate immune cells from HIV-infected individuals.’

Compared to cells collected prior to the initiation of ART, innate immune cells collected after patients started ART exhibited an increased response to inflammatory stimuli. Compared to other factors, patient viral load was the most predictive of the innate immune cell response. In monocytes, epigenetic modifications were observed at the locus of the gene encoding pro-inflammatory cytokine TNFα that associated with high levels of virus.

Together, the results of this study identify viral load as a driver of innate immune dysfunction in HIV-infected individuals.

Source: Eurekalert

AIDS/HIV - Prevention And Transmission

Encyclopedia section of medindia explains in brief about the prevention for AIDS/HIV

AIDS and Pregnancy

The Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is brought about by the deadly human immunodeficiency virus. In the USA alone an estimate of 120,000 - 160,000 women are HIV- infected.

AIDS/HIV - Lab Tests and FAQs

Describes how screening for HIV is performed in a laboratory.

AIDS/HIV

"AIDS is an epidemic disease, a potentially preventable, deadly infection for which there is no cure, no vaccine, and it is not under control." - National Commission on AIDS, 1993.

Myasthenia Gravis

Myasthenia gravis is the commonest disorder of neuromuscular transmission. Autoimmune myasthenia gravis needs to be distinguished from congenital myasthenic syndromes.