Identifying dormant cells infected with HIV would make it possible to fight the virus better. A CNRS team has published major results in this direction.
They are 150,000 living with HIV in France. The vast majority of these patients benefit from triple therapy. If antiretroviral drugs are effective in controlling the infection, they should be taken for life. In question, the dormant cells which can neither be eradicated nor detected. CNRS researchers may have found the solution. They managed to identify a protein that is only expressed on the surface of reservoir cells, they explain in Nature.
CD32a
HIV care is currently at an impasse. With triple therapy, the infection can be stopped. But the virus is not eradicated from the body. It persists, in a latent state, in the CD4 T lymphocytes that it infects. This status quo can last for decades, without the effects of antiretrovirals and the immune system. When treatment is interrupted, the chorus resumes: HIV multiplies massively and the infection evolves again.
The problem is, doctors are unable to sort out healthy cells from those with dormant HIV in them. The CNRS publication could put an end to this worrying ignorance. Researchers at the University of Montpellier (Hérault) have identified a protein that is expressed only on the surface of dormant cells. Its name: CD32a.
A diagnostic tool
A first series of analyzes in vitro has made it possible to distinguish this protein from among several hundred coding genes. The team then confirmed the finding based on blood samples from 12 HIV-positive patients. Almost all of the cells which express the marker carry HIV.
The role of the CD32a protein remained to be certified. In other words, what happens if the cells are activated? Back to the bench: by activating the cells, the researchers caused the production of the virus… which once again infects healthy cells. Conversely, the elimination of these cells greatly delays viral production.
A patent has been filed on this diagnostic method. And for good reason: the researchers hope to be able to isolate and analyze the dormant cells… Ultimately, it would become possible to target them. But this type of therapeutic strategy is still very distant.
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