Aug 27, 2020 17:10:00

A mechanism that HIV is suppressed in the body of people with a special gene called 'no AIDS treatment' was found

People with a special gene that does not develop AIDS, even if infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), do not grow in the body and are called ' (PDF file)

Elite controller '. A research team by Drs. Yu Yu and others from the Ragon Institute has published in Nature , a comprehensive science journal, on how elite controller people specifically control HIV.

Distinct viral reservoirs in individuals with spontaneous control of HIV-1 | Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2651-8

Unique HIV reservoirs in elite controllers-ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200826110326.htm

How'elite controllers' tame HIV without drugs | Science | AAAS
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/how-elite-controllers-tame-hiv-without-drugs

About 0.5% of all HIV-infected people fall under the category of elite controllers, and it is said to be an extremely valuable constitution. Yu's group used Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) on 61 elite controllers to investigate how the elite controllers retain HIV without propagating in the body. We conducted a survey to accurately map the position of an HIV.

As a result of the investigation, it became clear that the elite controller (PDF file) retains HIV in the 'inactive part' in the genome called human

desert where human DNA is not activated. HIV retained in the inactive part is unable to exert an effect, so it can neither multiply nor cause AIDS, said Yu and his team.

Yu's research team has made another discovery. Even if more than 1.5 billion cells of the elite controller once infected with HIV were analyzed in the past, only one of the subjects could not detect HIV. The results suggest that the special immune system of the elite controller may have eliminated HIV from the body, says Yu and his team.

'This discovery could also help eliminate problems with elite controllers,' said Stephen Dicks of the University of California, co-author of the research paper. Elite controllers are often suspected that HIV in the body may cause chronic symptoms, and some doctors may recommend that elite controllers take AIDS drugs. 'The inactivity of HIV in the body is safe without treatment and could prove that many elite controllers don't have to take medication,' Diks said.