Today AIDS is a disease that can be treated, but not eradicated. Indeed, some viruses hide in cells of the immune system, T lymphocytes and macrophages. But a team of immunity and cancer laboratory researchers (Inserm / Institut Curie) has succeeded in understanding that macrophages act as reservoirs for HIV.
In their study, published by the journal Journal of Experimental Medicine, scientists explain that under normal conditions, macrophages swallow and destroy cellular debris and bad microbes in our body. “But the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is capable of entering, multiplying and constituting reservoirs of viral particles. Stored in internal compartments, these particles are difficult to access by antiviral drugs. and attacks of the immune system “, they write. While T cells die after being infected, macrophages can resist for months or even years.
After following the evolution of macrophages before and after infection with the AIDS virus, they realized that the internal compartments of the latter, in which the viruses accumulate, pre-exist the infection. What are they for ? “We do not yet know it, this undoubtedly has a link with the function of” garbage collector “of macrophages. Certain receptors characteristic of this function are concentrated at the level of these compartments and more especially the CD36 receptor” explains the immunologist who led the study, Philippe Benaroch.
The researchers therefore exposed a few infected macrophages to anti-CD36 antibodies, thus preventing the release of the viruses in the body. “The antibodies penetrate and reach the internal compartments where they trap the viral particles”, specifies Philippe Benaroch. The authors of the study hope that by trapping these particles in their compartments, they lose all their infectious power. A note of hope for patients subjected to triple therapy for life.