NIH Grantees Overcome Hurdle to Kill HIV-Infected Cells Brought Out of Hiding

"A major obstacle to curing people of HIV infection is the way the virus hides in a reservoir primarily of dormant immune cells called resting memory CD4+ T cells. One potential approach to curing HIV infection is to awaken these latent CD4+ T cells so they start making HIV proteins. This would alert the immune system that the cells are infected, and, in theory, generate an immune response that kills them. It has been unclear, however, whether typical immune mechanisms for killing virally infected cells would eliminate HIV-infected CD4+ T cells awakened from the HIV reservoir."   To learn more about this study, view the NIAID news release.