Results of a new study suggest that HIV controllers have unusually low levels of certain regulatory cells that normally suppress the immune system. This, in turn, may lead to a high level of general immune system activation, allowing them to control their HIV.

The researchers suggested that this high level of immune system activation may also be responsible for some of the inflammatory diseases that are more common in HIV controllers, such as thickening of the arteries and a depletion of CD4 (white blood) cells that can cause progression to…

A recent study in Nature Medicine found that HIV-1 infected women have higher immune response rates compared to men with the same viral load, or amount of virus in the body.

The body’s immune response involves the activation of CD8+ T cells, which are specialized white blood cells known as cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). CTLs work to monitor all the cells in the body and destroy any foreign materials that enter the cells.

The study showed substantial sex differences in response to the HIV infection, specifically with regards to plasmacytoid…

In a recent study published by Nature Medicine, researchers have found that reservoirs of HIV are found primarily in two types of T-cells and that T cell survival and proliferation allow these reservoirs to persist.

In latently infected CD4 cells (white blood cells) the HIV virus is present, but is not actively producing more viruses. Once a virus initially penetrates a CD4 cell, it will begin replicating and subsequently disperse the duplicates to other CD4 cells, thereby spreading the infection. As HIV attacks these cells, infected individuals will generally see…