- NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - For the first time, researchers have discovered that HIV is able
to directly infect human kidney cells, and the kidneys may act as a reservoir
for the virus.
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- Previously, the virus was only found to infect immune
system cells--known as T-helper cells--and a type of brain cell, according
to Dr. Paul E. Klotman of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York
and colleagues.
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- Klotman's team found the HIV-infected kidney cells in
HIV-positive African Americans who had kidney disease associated with their
immune compromised condition. The patients had evidence of HIV activity
in the kidneys even when antiretroviral drugs suppressed the virus in the
blood to undetectable levels.
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- ``There are many implications associated with this finding,
the main one being that we have identified another potential reservoir
for the virus to hide from treatment,'' Klotman said.
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- Current antiretroviral treatments focus on eradicating
the virus in the body and if other cells are found to harbor virus, it
makes it tougher when searching for a cure, Klotman explained.
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- The team of researchers took tissue samples of HIV-infected
patients with kidney disease and compared them with normal human kidney
samples.
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- ``We are not sure at this time just exactly how HIV gets
into the kidney cells,'' Klotman told Reuters Health. The researchers also
do not know if this occurs in populations other than African Americans
with kidney disease. In general, African American are at higher risk of
kidney failure than whites, for reasons that are not entirely clear.
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- SOURCE: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology
2000;11.
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