HIV Can Hide in Macrophages, With Dire Implications on Search of Cure
A new hurdle has just been discovered in the ongoing search for a way to completely eradicate the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). While macrophages, or the large white blood cells found throughout the body, have been previously established as another vector for HIV replication, a new study has confirmed that the cells can also act as a viral reservoir.
This new finding shows how much farther HIV/AIDS research must go to find a treatment to completely eradicate HIV. According to Jenna Honeycutt, Ph.D., research associate at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, "These results are paradigm changing because they demonstrate that cells other than T cells can serve as a reservoir for HIV." She went on to say, "The fact that HIV-infected macrophages can persist means that any possible therapeutic intervention to eradicate HIV might have to target two very different types of cells."
The new findings were published in science journal "Nature Medicine" on Monday, April 17. While methods of targeting latent HIV is still in its infancy, this new discovery already puts another burden on researchers to find a way to target latent HIV in two kinds of cells — T cells and macrophages.
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Early last year, a team confirmed that tissue macrophages, not just T cells, can also be infected by HIV and support virus replication as well. The team, led by J. Victor Garcia, Ph. D., professor at UNC School of Medicine, demonstrated that HIV can live and multiply with just macrophages around them, even in the absence of T cells.
Their earlier study has shown an encouraging sign that antiretroviral therapy works for the infected macrophages as well. However, when treatment was stopped, the virus rebounded in numbers in one-third of the samples. Without T cells in the samples, the implications are clear — macrophages can harbor latent HIV as well.
Honeycutt said of the study: "In addition, we show that productively infected macrophages can persist despite ART; and most importantly, that they can reinitiate and sustain infection upon therapy interruption even in the absence of T cells — the major target of HIV infection."
Now, another race is on to find new ways to disrupt or detect active and latent HIV in macrophages, as well as T cells. This news just goes to show that support for HIV/AIDS research is needed more than ever, a message that needs to be gotten across to the current United States administration.
