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Author

  • Jim Kling

  • Louis J. Picker

Publisher

  • The Scientist

Category

  • CD4+

Topic

  • CD4+ Reliability

Article Type

  • Column

Publish Year

  • 2001

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Meta Description

  • Research disputes theory that decrease in CD4+ T cells signifies AIDS progression. Findings suggest HIV-specific CD4+ T cell levels aren't accurate disease markers.

Summary

  • This is a summary of an article disputing a theory about the progression of AIDS. The theory suggested that a decrease in CD4+ T cells, which are important for the immune response to HIV, would lead to disease progression. However, the author of the article, Louis J. Picker, argues that this theory is flawed. He conducted experiments and found that patients with low levels of CD4+ T cells still had surviving populations of these cells. He suggests that CD4+ T cell levels are not an accurate marker of disease progression. Picker's work has improved the methodology for studying the immune system. Overall, this article challenges the previous theory and provides new insights into the role of CD4+ T cells in AIDS progression.

Meta Tag

  • AIDS Progression

  • CD4+ T cells

  • HIV-1

  • Disease progression

  • Viral load

  • Immune system process

  • Flow cytometry assay

  • Louis J. Picker

  • Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute

  • Antiretroviral therapy

  • HIV-specific CD4+ T cell counts

  • Oregon Health Sciences University

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By Jim Kling

Original Publication
The Scientist 15[10]:17, May 14, 2001

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Evidence suggests that a decrease in CD4 + T cells is not a death sentence

For this article, Jim Kling interviewed Louis J. Picker, associate director of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at the Oregon Health Sciences University. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that Hot Papers are cited 50 to 100 times more often than the average paper of the same type and age.

...

The researchers continue to investigate the role of HIV-specific CD4+ cells in controlling infection, and whether they contribute to infection. HIV-specific CD4+ T cells are targets of the virus, says Picker, and it is possible that having more of them just gives the virus more activated T cells to attack. "We have moved to a nonhuman primate model (SIV) to assess this question...; this model allows us to look at very early events during infection."

References

  1. E.S. Rosenberg et al., "Vigorous HIV-1-specific CD4+ T cell responses associated with control of viremia," Science, 278:1447-50, 1997.

  2. L.J. Picker and V.C. Maino, "The CD4+ T cell response to HIV-1,"

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