A new study, published in the journal Nature, identifies the cause of cell death and depletion of T-cells in the case of an HIV infection.  Researchers explain that the pathway causing cell death in HIV-infected hosts remains poorly understood, but apoptosis has been proposed as a key mechanism.  Finding this mechanism a major breakthrough for HIV/AIDS research, reports the Los Angeles Times.  According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, apoptosis is programmed cell death otherwise known as the cell committing suicide.  Apoptosis is common in adult animal tissues.

T-cells are part of the immune system, states the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  In doing so, T-cells either help by working to direct or regulate immune responses or by directly attacking infected or cancerous cells.  They aid normal processes of the immune system, but they can fail to work properly.  These dysfunctions are the source of autoimmune diseases, asthma, and some types of cancer.

The new study finds apoptosis in T-cells and the immune response of the body to be the source of cell death in AIDS victims.  HIV infection can lead to an intense inflammatory response in the body.  As a result, the programmed cell death pathway is triggered.  When the cells die, they signal a further inflammatory response, which magnifies the cell suicides.  The cycle continues creating the massive cell death seen in AIDS.

Simultaneously with the publication in Nature, the researchers also published the study in the journal Science.  Researchers note that the specific T-cells implicated in this pathway are CD4 T-cells, which play a “bystander” role in HIV infection, but are the principal driver of the infection progressing to AIDS.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus.  It is the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Unlike some other viruses, the human body cannot get rid of HIV. That means that once a person is infected with HIV, they have it for life.  However, HIV does not guarantee that a person will end up with AIDS.

According to the Annual Review of Immunology, in the absence of antiretroviral treatment, HIV-1 establishes a chronic, progressive infection of the human immune system that invariably, over the course of years, leads to its destruction and fatal immunodeficiency.  The CDC states that, annually, there are approximately 50,000 new infections of HIV in the U.S. every year.  Annually, there are an estimated 15,500 deaths from AIDS and over 600,000 deaths recorded to date in the U.S.