Why can we get HIV to a viral load of 0 but can’t get rid of the virus?
In: 1087
That is an excellent question, and the concept of latency (which is responsible for this) is the main reason why we cannot cure HIV at the moment.
Think of your body as composed of millions of small independent factories (your cells).
Each factory (cell) has access to the same schematic but only produces certain parts from the blueprints. This means that the products produced, although different, look very similar and can be recognised as “self” (by your immune system), they belong there. If the factory at any point fails this inspection it is immidiately shut down and destroyed.
What HIV has the ability to do is place it’s own set of blueprints into the schematic and cause your factories to produce HIV parts, which can be recognised as foreign. However, each factory has to decide what blueprint to produce, this means that factories can go on for a long time without producing any HIV parts.
With the current drugs (ART) we have the ability to stop this process, both the production of new HIV and the integration of the blueprints and therefore remove all chance of transmission. BUT ART doesn’t remove the blueprints already integrated, they remain there until the factory is destroyed.
If the factories with HIV blueprints don’t produce anything that labels them as infected they avoid destruction (by the immune system). They then remain and act as a reservoir ready to produce HIV if ART is stopped.
This is of course very simplified and there are lots of aspects that can be a elaborated on, so feel free to ask any questions.
Latest Answers