Lymph Node T Cell Dynamics and Novel Strategies for HIV Cure

Download or read book Lymph Node T Cell Dynamics and Novel Strategies for HIV Cure written by Constantinos Petrovas and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2019-02-11 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Currently, more than 36 million people are infected with HIV. Although the introduction of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has led to substantial advances in the clinical management of HIV infected individuals, HAART cannot completely eliminate the virus. This is because CD4 T helper cells, harboring the virus, remain dormant reservoirs. These reservoirs are difficult to measure and are present even in HAART-treated HIV infected individuals with undetectable levels of HIV in the blood. A growing body of studies has revealed follicular helper (Tfh) CD4 T cells, a highly differentiated CD4 T cell population localized in immunologically sanctuary sites (follicle/germinal center), as a major reservoir of HIV. The present Frontiers in Immunology eBook compiles 16 timely review articles focusing on the dynamics of major follicular immune cell types in HIV/SIV infection and their potential role for disease pathogenesis and the viral persistence in the lymph node. This eBook provides a comprehensive presentation of recent published work on lymph node and especially Tfh cell dynamics in HIV infection and we hope that it will be useful for our further understanding of how such dynamics affect the interplay between virus and host as well as for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets in the fight against HIV.