Viral and host factors in the pathogenesis of HIV infection

✍ Scribed by Cynthia A Derdeyn; Guido Silvestri

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 161 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2005.06.001

✦ Synopsis

Recent studies suggest that the pathogenesis of HIV infection and AIDS involves two distinct phases. During acute infection, massive depletion of CD4 + CCR5 + memory T cells within the mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue leads to major and potentially irreversible damage to CD4 + T-cell-mediated immune functions. The emergence of potent, but ultimately ineffective, cell-mediated and humoral responses to HIV leads to the chronic phase of infection, which is characterized by partial control of viral replication, chronic immune activation, progressive decline of the naı ¨ve and memory T-cell pool, and systemic CD4 + T-cell depletion. The identification of these two pathogenic phases of HIV infection could have important implications in terms of HIV therapy and vaccine development.