The Light At The Start Of The Tunnel

HIV Prof was on a roll last night. Too funny, now he is making analogies between the virus and Osama Bin Laden.

HIV Prof:
"So you see HIV is kind of like Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda in that it can hide from the immune system here (pointing to memory T cells). So your memory T cells are kind of like that lawless area between Pakistan and Afghanistan where noone really has any jurisdiction or wants to!"

LOL, where does he get this stuff? I think he's totally adlib too.

I probably should give a mini immune system primer, since many of my friends are curious and everyone should know how it works at a high level.

Immune System - basically it involves 3 types of cells. B cells, T(killer) cells and the infamous T(helper) cells.

B cells run around your body looking for crap that doesnt belong (viruses, bacteria, etc). They gobble up the crap and spit out antibodies. Antibodies are like little flags for a specific piece of crap. The antibodies snuggle up to cells that have been infected with a specific piece of crap (like a cold virus) . The antibody acts as a radar signal to T(killer) cells.

T(killer) cells are single focused soldiers. Their only job from birth is to destroy cells infected with a specific piece of crap. They find the cells that has been tagged with an antibody and kill it. They can also kill infected cells without antibodies.

T(killer) and B cells will not operate without T(helper) cells. T(helper) cells send out the "go" messages for both. Basically the T(killer) and B cells are the front line operations while T(helper) cells are command central.

Sadly it is the T(helper) cell that HIV infects. This disables the B cells from sending out the signals that cause the T(killer) cells to destroy infected cells. Also, T(killer) cells cannot work unless the T(helper) cell gives the "go" message. Worse, while some T(killer) cells are still alive, they wind up killing the T(helper) cells since they themselves are infected.

This is a total nightmare scenario. Its amazing that this battlefield will continue for decades before the immune system finally sends up the white flag. This is known as the asymptomatic period, you feel fine but your body is working overtime to rid itself of the invader. HIV is not latent, per se, it is very active from day 1.

Despite this horrible scenario there is light at the start of this tunnel. There are anti-virals which trick the virus into stopping its replication (AZT and the like). There are protease inhibitors (more on these cool things later) which keep the virus in a state of suspended animation so it can't do anything. Now, the most recent promise, the CCR5 blockers.

More background - your cells contain locks all over the outside, offically these are known as receptors. Each thing that needs access to the inside of a cell must have the corresponding key or keys. Viruses are tricky in that they mimic keys for specific cells. For example, the cold virus contains a key for the ICAM lock on the cells that line your nose. Products like Zicam work by jamming up this lock so nothing, including the virus, can unlock it.

HIV mimics keys for the locks on your T(helper) cells. One lock is known as CXCR4. Any article that talks about HIV infection will talk about CXCR4. But, the key to CXCR4 alone will not grant access, it also needs a key to another lock, called CCR5. Interestingly your body has other non-fatal things that also get into cells through CCR5; its a competition of numbers to see if those things will get to the lock first and block HIV access.

Its the CCR5 lock that is a screaming hot area of research and shows exciting promise. Scientists have found people that are resistant to HIV infection, they can be exposed to the virus but never produce antibodies and there is no trace of the virus in their system. Some of these people are of European descent. About 1% of all people of European descent don't have CCR5 locks at all, so there is no way the virus can access their cells. In those few people the virus just wanders around aimlessly and in vain until the immune system finds it, kills it and spits it out.

Then there are the African prostitutes, some of which have been repeatedly exposed to HIV-1 and HIV-2 yet much like the European resistant people, dont show antibodies and do not have a trace of virus. The prostitutes have been studied. They do have CCR5 locks but their systems produce exaggerated amounts of the things that compete for the CCR5 lock , effectively denying access to HIV.

There are several "CCR5 lock jamming" drugs in clinical trials as we speak. Lets hope one of them proves effective and soon.

This is the kind of work that I hope to do in the next year or so. HIV is really pissing me off so I aim to destroy it before it destroys the 60 million people it currently holds hostage.