What are "elite controllers"? Although
carries HIV in his body, he can spontaneously inhibit the replication of the virus and control the number of viruses within a safe range. These people are called "elite controllers" because they can control the HIV virus in their bodies without treatment and thus do not get sick.
Among the elite controllers, there are two more outstanding cases. Without taking medicine, they completely eliminated the virus in their bodies and achieved "self-healing". They are the San Francisco patient reported in 2020 and the Esperanza patient reported in 2021.
In fact, before this, there were also AIDS infected patients who were cured - the "London patient" and the "Berlin patient".
The two infected people had to undergo bone marrow transplants because of their cancer. Bone marrow donors are born with a CCR5 receptor gene mutation. This special genetic mutation causes the newly born immune cells to have no protein receptors that can bind to HIV , thereby eliminating the virus.
However, the risk of bone marrow transplantation itself is extremely high. Even if the operation is successful, it is difficult to guarantee that AIDS will be cured. So far, there are only two successful cases. Why can
elite controllers heal themselves?
Xu Yu’s team from the Ragon Institute of Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital (Lian Xiaodong is the first author) published a research paper titled: Signatures of immune selection in intact and defective proviruses distinguish HIV-1 elite controllers in the journal Science Translational Medicine. .
Simply put, elite controllers are different from ordinary people in two ways.
First, the complete proviral sequence is integrated in the heterochromatin region, and DNA in this region usually has weak transcriptional activity ("gene desert"), which reduces the ability of the virus to transcribe and replicate.
Second, about 15% of the " elite controllers" have a complete HIV provirus missing Nef, which is critical to the virulence of the HIV virus and its ability to cause AIDS.
Another view is that the immune system of elite controllers can produce a specific killer T cell, which can carry out very effective targeted attacks on the vulnerable parts of HIV, thereby controlling the spread and proliferation of the virus in the early stages.
The discovery of two cases of self-healing patients may provide some research ideas for complete cure of AIDS patients.
cannot detect the virus, how do you know you are infected? The virus in the body of the
elite controller is controlled within a safe range. It is possible that the virus cannot be detected because it is below the detection threshold. But elite controllers have strong immune systems and antibodies can be detected.
Some people who fear AIDS have tested negative for antibodies and nucleic acids, but they are still worried and suspect that they are elite controllers.
First of all, elite controllers only account for 0.5% of infected people, and they are very rare among yellow people. There is really no need to worry about this. This is just like some people who are tested for HIV and always worry that they are type 2, or other more rare subdivided types. There is no need.
Secondly, as mentioned above, elite controllers are nucleic acid negative, but antibodies are present.
Through the mutual complementation of antibodies and nucleic acids, an infected person can definitely be "identified". And if they are all negative, it means there is no infection.
So, don’t be afraid of AIDS for no reason anymore.
and above.
