HIV is a global health problem and for this reason, there are continuous studies dedicated to stopping or at least reducing the statistics. A new report suggests that eliminating HIV is possible.
Early Events After HIV Infection Is Critical
According to Daily Mail Online, experts believe that there's a narrow window of opportunity to eliminate HIV from a person's blood. This opportunity occurs just a few days after the infection.
Per the report, the researchers were able to capture the earliest stages of infection before the virus was even detectable in the blood. This new discovery is important in developing vaccines and other strategies to prevent HIV infection.
"The events during the first few days after exposure to the virus and prior to the initial detection of virus in the blood are critical in determining the course of infection, but this period is essentially impossible to study in humans," said Dan Barouch, lead author of the study per ScienceDaily.
There's A Narrow Window To Eliminate HIV
The researchers exposed 44 rhesus monkeys to SIV, the animal equivalent of HIV and analyze the animals on day 0, 1, 3, 7 and 10 following their SIV exposure. They learned that SIV could easily spread to the body with viral RNA present in at least one tissue outside the reproductive tract in most monkeys that were analyzed after 24 hours of exposure.
Aside from this, they also learned that the virus initiated a local inflammatory response that suppresses antiviral innate and adaptive immunity, augmenting its replication in the process. The inflammatory response was observed in tissues inflicted with the virus soon after the exposure.
Increasing the amount of the SIV's RNA demonstrated a rising amount of a host protein called NLRX1 that stop the immune system from mounting a response against the virus. Also, they learned that the suppresses adaptive immune response was triggered and was linked to lower levels of antiviral immune response and higher levels of SIV replication. The results showed that elevated levels of genes in the TGF-beta pathways in tissues have traces of the virus' genetic material in as early as one day after SIV exposure.
This observation suggests that there's a narrow window where SIV/HIV virus can be eliminated. "We believe that these insights into early HIV/SIV infection will be critical for the development of interventions to block infection, such as vaccines, antibodies, microbicides and drugs," Barouch concluded. "The next step in this line of research is to evaluate how various interventions may impact these early events."
The study is published in the journal Cell.
