A New Understanding of AIDS
From: Now We Know How HIV Causes AIDS Nearly 33 years after clinicians first reported AIDS, we are still learning how HIV leads to the immune system destruction that characterizes AIDS.
By Glendon Mellow
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
From: Now We Know How HIV Causes AIDS
Nearly 33 years after clinicians first reported AIDS, we are still learning how HIV leads to the immune system destruction that characterizes AIDS.
It’s the lack of CD4+ T cells that renders a person with AIDS susceptible to opportunistic infections like pneumonia and scores of others. It is not the HIV virus itself that destroys these helpful immune cells, but rather a cascade that triggers an intense inflammatory process of programmed cell death distinct from apoptosis, known as pyroptosis.
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These new findings can lead to novel therapeutic pathways and new hope in the fight against HIV.
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