[Dean's World] Dave Price: Why HIV Doesn't Always Cause AIDS

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Why HIV Doesn't Always Cause AIDS
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1186001326.shtml


   [1]Interesting news:

     UCI biologist Dominik Wodarz has shown for the first time that the
     development of AIDS might require HIV to evolve within a patient
     into a state where it spreads less efficiently from cell to cell.
     This counters the current belief that AIDS develops when the virus
     evolves over time to spread more efficiently within a patient,
     ultimately leading to the collapse of the immune system.
     The study also finds that multiple HIV particles must team up to
     infect individual cells, called co-infection, in order for deadly
     strains to emerge and to turn the infection into AIDS. If just one
     virus particle infects a cell, the deadliest strains may not be
     able to evolve, stopping HIV from progressing to AIDS. By keeping
     more than one HIV particle from infecting a cell, scientists might
     be able to ward off AIDS, the study suggests. AIDS killed more than
     17,000 people in the United States in 2005.
     ...
     This theory could explain why certain monkeys that are naturally
     infected with the monkey version of HIV never develop AIDS.
     According to Wodarz's model, multiple virus particles may infect
     cells at reduced levels or not at all. Wodarz says this theory also
     could be tested experimentally.

   This, combined with the difficulty in properly diagnosing AIDS
   ([2]particularly in Africa) probably explains why the connection has
   been as tenuous as it has, which has even led some to totally discount
   any link between HIV and AIDS (which is going a bit too far, imho).
   It's also interesting that we have two articles involving in vivo
   evolution of deadly diseases on DW today. Apparently the concept is
   catching on with medical researchers, if not in Kansas.

References

   1. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070731191206.htm
   2. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=AIDS+misdiagnosed+Africa