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HIV crippled B cell production of antibodies maker in just 17 days after infection.

Antibodies are small proteins that kill or binds foreign organisms that released by immune system cells. Antibodies produced by B cells, specific to each infection. In HIV, the development of antibodies against viruses that enter the body is quite slow - sometimes making requires up to several months to reach enough. Conversely, many viral infections and other bacteria that trigger antibody production in a few days after infection. However, so far, no one can explain and prove why the antibody response to HIV so slow.

To answer that question, Marc Levesque MD. PhD, from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues examined the number of B cells in blood samples or lymph nodes in colon taken from 26 newly infected people. B cell levels in the blood measured at 17 days after infection in 26 people, and the intestinal tissue at 47 days after infection in 14 people. Some patients started antiretroviral therapy (ART), while others do not. Blood samples of patients from both groups compared with blood samples taken from study participants who were HIV-negative.

Only 17 days after infection, Levesque team found a significant sign of damage to the cell B. The number of naive B cells in HIV-infected patients is half of the amount of naive B cells in HIV-negative patients. Naive B cells is important, because these cells can be trained to respond to new organisms into the body, such as HIV.



After 47 days of infection, there is also a sign of significant damage in the three groups of cells in the lymph nodes in the intestine (called Peyer's patches) - follicular dendritic cells, CD4 + T cells and B cells, all of which must work together to develop an antibody response is needed. Furthermore, the group Levesque found, the higher one's viral load, likely has damage to higher nodes.




The authors argue that HIV may cause most of the damage observed with too intensified due to the immune system. Designed to kill foreign attackers, the immune system to fight itself and cause the cell to die earlier, faster than the number of new cells can replace it correctly. The authors also commented that their research can influence research on vaccines designed mostly to stop or control the infection through antibody.