HIV replication
Snapshots of Life: Finding Where HIV Hides
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Credit: Nadia Roan, University of California, San Francisco
Researchers have learned a tremendous amount about how the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, infects immune cells. Much of that information comes from studying immune cells in the bloodstream of HIV-positive people. Less detailed is the picture of how HIV interacts with immune cells inside the lymph nodes, where the virus can hide.
In this image of lymph tissue taken from the neck of a person with uncontrolled HIV infection, you can see areas where HIV is replicating (red) amid a sea of immune cells (blue dots). Areas of greatest HIV replication are associated with a high density of a subtype of human CD4 T-cells (yellow circles) that have been found to be especially susceptible to HIV infection.
