U of M researchers discover HIV reservoir

University of Michigan scientists have discovered that bone marrow, previously thought to be resistant to the HIV, can contain latent forms of the virus. Their findings, which appear online in Nature Medicine, indicate a new target for curing the disease.

Using tissue samples, U-M researchers detected HIV genomes in bone marrow isolated from people treated with antiviral drugs for more than six months. Further studies are needed to demonstrate that stem cells can harbor the HIV virus; however, the study results confirm that HIV targets some young cells that have not fully developed but mature into cells with special immune functions. When active infection occurs, the toxic effects of the virus kill the cell even as the newly made viral particles spread the infection to new target cells.

"Antiviral drugs have been effective at keeping the virus at bay. However once the drug therapy is stopped, the virus comes back," says senior author of the study Kathleen Collins, professor of both internal medicine and microbiology and immunology at the U-M Medical School. "Ultimately to cure this disease, we're going to have to develop specific strategies aimed at targeting these latently infected cells," she adds.

The researchers earlier found the HIV virus hiding in the macrophages, which are the white blood cells within the tissues, and in the disease fighting cells called memory T-cells--but they were surprised to find it in the marrow, according to The Money Times. Globally, more than 30 million people are infected with HIV, including millions of children. Improvements have been made since the 1990s in the way the disease is treated that has led to an 85 percent to 90 percent reduction in mortality.

- see the U-M release
- read more from The Money Times
- check out the study abstract from Nature Medicine

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