Researchers Crack Major HIV Mystery

mrspoonsi sends this news from Scientific American: "The difference between HIV infection and full-blown AIDS is, in large part, the massive die-off of the immune system's CD4 T-cells. But researchers have only observed the virus killing a small portion of those cells, leading to a longstanding question: What makes the other cells disappear? New research shows that the body is killing its own cells in a little-known process. What's more, an existing, safe drug could interrupt that self-destruction, thereby offering a way to treat AIDS. The destructive process has caught scientists by surprise. 'We thought HIV infects a cell, sets up a virus production factory and then the cell dies as a consequence of being overwhelmed by virus. But there are not enough factories to explain the massive losses,' says Warner Greene, director of virology and immunology at the Gladstone Institutes, whose team published two papers today in Science and Nature describing the work. Greene estimates 95 percent of the cells that die in HIV infections are killed through pyroptosis, so the findings raise hope for a new type of treatment that could prevent HIV from progressing into AIDS. 'Inhibiting activation of the immune system is not a new concept, but this gives us a new pathway to target,' says Robert Gallo. And in fact, a drug already exists that can block pyroptosis."

Comments

Re:AIDS is God's way of saying homosexuality is wr

[sumdumass]

What are you 5? I mean do you seriously think you are going to gain anything by responding to a troll with a troll comment? The poster you are replying to is nothing but a troll- likely not remotely religious and just spouting bigotry (if the AC wasn't you trying to set up the garbage reply you gave) and your trying to validate it with continuing the toll? The comment has so many negative votes, I had to hit the parent button just to see the context of your ramblings. So by your reply, you actually exposed more people to that vile post.

And you even have to inject specifically male homosexual activity in order separate gays from lesbians (which is an idiotic distinction anyways) which the parent did nothing of the sort. But on top of all that, you have to try to be offensive in the process. By your logic (or lack thereof), I can only reason you are the original poster and trying to troll the interweb.