By WCM Newsroom
Vaccination with a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine revealed HIV hiding in immune cells in blood from people with HIV, according to lab research led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings, published Aug. 19 in Nature Communications, identify new tools for evaluating treatment approaches in development aimed at curing HIV.
âThere is prior knowledge of the flu vaccine, for example, waking up HIV and exposing it to the immune system; but it has been unclear whether that was only happening in flu-specific T cells, a known place where HIV hides,â said senior author Dr. Brad Jones, an associate professor of immunology in medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine. âOur findings are exciting as we demonstrated a more powerful effect with the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. It woke up HIV hiding in T cells in blood from people with no previous exposure to the virus or the vaccine.â
HIV attacks the bodyâs immune cells and tricks them into making copies of itself. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) transforms HIV infection into a manageable chronic disease by keeping the virus from multiplying, lowering the viral load in the blood levels to help restore a healthy immune system and significantly reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to others. However, ART does not cure HIV as some virus thatâs not actively multiplying remains hidden in immune cells, called the latent HIV reservoir. Scientists have been investigating ways to tease HIV out of the reservoir using latency reversal agents so that it may be exposed to immune cells.
Read Full Article Here…(news.weill.cornell.edu)
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