Multiplicity and HIV's course.Biology Multiplicity and HIV's clinical course A study of four people infected with the AIDS-causing HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. virus has found that, over a four-year period, the viruses isolated from the patients became more virulent -- something scientists have suspected for some time. Researchers at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). at San Francisco said last week that the later isolates killed more white cells and multiplied faster than those taken from patients early in infection. Emergence of these more virulent viruses corresponded with clinical appearance of AIDS symptoms, say the scientists who conclude the increased virulence occurred inside the body rather than during laboratory procedures. Reporting in the April 1 SCIENCE, Jay A. Levy and others suggest that tracking HIV isolates as they change in vivo in vivo /in vi·vo/ (ve´vo) [L.] within the living body. in vi·vo adj. Within a living organism. in vivo adv. will help explain the symptomatic course of the disease. Further studies, they say, "should provide information on the genes that determine the virulence of HIV-1, and identify potential targets for antiviral therapy." The California study reiterates the problems caused by HIV's many isolates and its ability to mutate mu·tate intr. & tr.v. mu·tat·ed, mu·tat·ing, mu·tates To undergo or cause to undergo mutation. [Latin m rapidly. A recent study of a specific feline leukemia virus feline leukemia virus n. A retrovirus that primarily affects cats, is transmitted through saliva, and causes suppression of the immune system and anemia, leading to opportunistic infections and diseases such as leukemia and lymphoma. , which also causes fatal feline immunodeficiency syndrome, led scientists to conclude that current laboratory procedures may not be isolating the more virulent strains of HIV, thus misleading researchers (SN: 2/27/88, p.133). |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion