When someone finds out they have HIV, they wonder when they might have caught the virus. French researchers have discovered how the HIV virus penetrates the mucosa. In a short video, they managed to capture the moment when the viral cells are infecting the body.
- Researchers from Institute Cochin recorded a video using imaging method, showing how a HIV-infected T cell transmits the virus through the urethral mucosa
- Such knowledge gives scientists a new picture of the entire process of infecting the virus
- Perhaps a way can be found to stop HIV
HIV is one of the most dangerous viruses. You can get it in several ways – sexually, by using the same contaminated needles or other medical equipment, during childbirth, and by any contact with contaminated blood, certain secretions of the human body, semen, vaginal secretions, rectum or milk.
While it is well known that HIV is sexually transmitted, how the virus penetrates the mucous membranes of the genital organs to achieve its immune target is less well understood. Earlier research has focused on biochemical measurements or morphology at various points during HIV transmission to investigate this process. In a 2018 study published in the journal Cell Reports, scientists at the Cochin Institute in Paris made a groundbreaking discovery. Under laboratory conditions, they recorded an HIV infection live. The video therefore gives an answer to the question of how the infection occurs.
Scientists developed an in vitro model of the urethral mucosa, which is found in both male and female reproductive organs. They then exposed him to infected lymphocytes. The material shows how a T lymphocyte (green ball) infected with HIV meets epithelial cells of the reconstructed tissue of the urethral mucosa. When the infected T cell and the epithelial cell came into contact, a so-called viral synapse. The T-cell then produces the infectious HIV virus, which appears in the movies as green fluorescent dots. This is how the virus penetrates the synapse into the mucosal epithelial cells. Importantly, the epithelial cell is not infected, the virus simply travels deeper through the cell and, as it passes through the epithelial layer, is picked up by immune cells called macrophages. This process takes about 1-2 hours, and after the virus is transferred, the infected T-lymphocyte disconnects and continues on its way – we read on health.wprost.pl.
The most surprising thing is that the infected T cells targeted the epithelial cells directly above the macrophages.
In Poland, on average, three people learn about the infection every day. One third of them are young people under 30, but the number of people 50+ diagnosed with infection is also increasing.
Read also:
- Patient zero: he had 2,5 thousand lovers, many knowingly infected with HIV
- Every day as many as three Poles learn that they are HIV positive
- If all those infected with HIV were collected in one place, it would turn out that they could settle in Poland. Can we treat them effectively?