That genetic lockup may be key to being able to naturally control the virus. Those two people are part of a rare group of people known as elite controllers, meaning they are able to maintain very low or undetectable levels of HIV without antiretroviral drugs. These people have no symptoms or clear signs of damage from the virus.
What makes an elite controller a Elite controller?
And by the time anyone recognizes an elite controller, the fight is already won. About a quarter of elite controllers have genetic variants in key immune system genes that may help them get a handle on the virus, says Joseph Wong, a virologist at the University of California, San Francisco.
Are there elite controllers who have low CD4 counts?
Elite controllers have significantly lower levels of immune activation. Correspondingly, controllers with the highest level of immune activation have the lowest levels of CD4 counts. “We think that the majority of HIV controllers, while they are able to control virus replication, still have abnormal levels of inflammation,” he adds.
Who are the elite controllers of infectious diseases?
Scientists call these people elite controllers, and while they make up less than 0.5% of the 38 million HIV-infected people on the planet, they represent the forefront of research into the disease. T he concept of viral control exists for almost all infectious diseases, with asymptomatic Covid-19 patients being another example of elite controllers.
That genetic lockup may be key to being able to naturally control the virus. Those two people are part of a rare group of people known as elite controllers, meaning they are able to maintain very low or undetectable levels of HIV without antiretroviral drugs. These people have no symptoms or clear signs of damage from the virus.
And by the time anyone recognizes an elite controller, the fight is already won. About a quarter of elite controllers have genetic variants in key immune system genes that may help them get a handle on the virus, says Joseph Wong, a virologist at the University of California, San Francisco.
Scientists call these people elite controllers, and while they make up less than 0.5% of the 38 million HIV-infected people on the planet, they represent the forefront of research into the disease. T he concept of viral control exists for almost all infectious diseases, with asymptomatic Covid-19 patients being another example of elite controllers.
Can a person’s immune system fight a virus?
It has been difficult to figure it out, Dandekar says, because no one has recorded the first fight scenes between HIV and the elite controllers’ immune systems. “We miss the initial punches the immune system has thrown at the virus.” And by the time anyone recognizes an elite controller, the fight is already won.
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