HIV is a master of evading the immune system, using a variety of methods to prevent the body from being able to find and kill it. The vast majority of people living with HIV require daily medication to suppress the virus and therefore prevent the development of AIDS.
But for a small subset of people, this battle between the immune system and the virus looks quite different. Known as controllers, they have immune systems that can suppress the virus without any need for medication. Interestingly, while most controllers can suppress the virus indefinitely, some eventually lose control over the virus and require medication to achieve viral suppression. In a paper recently published in Immunity, Ragon researchers found that, in these cases, control is lost after a type of immune cell, known as a cytotoxic T cell, loses the ability to proliferate and kill HIV-infected cells. What this doesn’t tell, however, is the years of work and Ragon-wide collaborations needed to uncover this key part of the HIV story.
