HIV is a virus that gradually attacks the body\u2019s immune system. Transmitted through infected bodily fluids like blood or semen, the virus enters the bloodstream and targets the host\u2019s helper T cells, a specialized type of white blood cells. Because it is a retrovirus, HIV can hijack the host\u2019s replication machinery to make more of copies of itself.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s estimated that the virus can make up to 10 billion new copies every day<\/strong>. The onslaught of viruses damages the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to a host of infections. This is the AIDS (acquired human immunodeficiency syndrome)<\/strong> part of HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n But in a subset of population \u2013 170 children in South Africa \u2013 scientists found a conundrum. These children are unequivocally positive for HIV infection<\/strong> \u2013 they have viral counts in the thousands \u2013 yet somehow have never had AIDS<\/strong> despite any antiretroviral therapy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is quite unusual because in general the progression from HIV infection to serious disease is more rapid in children than in adults. About 60 percent of kids infected die within two and a half years,\u201d said Philip Goulder, a pediatric infectious disease researcher at the University of Oxford, and senior author of the study.<\/p>\n It seems the complete opposite may be true: the immune system in these children seem to be adopting a \u201ckeep calm and carry on\u201d approach. \u00abEssentially, their immune system is ignoring the virus as far as possible,\u00bb said Goulder.<\/p>\n This counterintuitive mechanism has also been documented in some 40 species of monkeys that can survive infection with SIV, a related virus to HIV. \u201cNatural selection has worked in these cases,\u00bb\u00a0said Goulder, \u00aband the mechanism is very similar to the one in these kids that don’t progress,\u201d said Goulder.<\/p>\n \u201cScientists have known for decades that immune system activation is a crucial step in SIV in monkeys,\u201d said Derya Unutmaz, an immunologist at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, in Farmington, Connecticut.\u201cWhat is exciting about this result is that it recapitulates an important difference seen in African monkeys versus Asian monkeys in how they deal with the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the research, the immune system typically goes into overdrive to attack HIV after infection. But, as Goulder explained: \u201cWaging war against the virus is in most cases the wrong thing to do.\u00bb This is because chronic inflammation and hyperactivity of the immune system is actually quite detrimental to the human system, making the body incredibly more susceptible to infection and diseases.<\/p>\n Of note, researchers don\u2019t yet know if HIV in these children will persist or worsen later in life, as immune systems can change drastically from childhood to adulthood.<\/p>\n The implications for this discovery are quite broad for the field of HIV\/AIDS research. It suggests that the infection and subsequent response has a lot to do with how our immune system reacts to the virus. It also gives great hope that we may be able to model this \u201claissez-faire\u201d approach to combat HIV in other populations. \u00abWe may be identifying an entirely new pathway by studying kids that in the longer term could be translated to new treatments for all HIV infected people,\u00bbGoulder said.<\/p>\nAre these children equip with a more robust, aggressive immune system that wards off HIV?<\/h4>\n