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Article: Why AIDS?(research into how the HIV virus kill the immune system)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 27, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Over the past 15 years, governments and institutions have poured millions of dollars into AIDS research. Researchers and doctors have dramatically improved treatments for the disease and gained new understanding of how HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, infects cells. Nevertheless, scientists still understand relatively little about how HIV causes the immune system to collapse, the ultimate consequence of infection.
Most researchers have held that HIV directly kills the immune cells called helper T cells, or CD4 cells, eventually exhausting an immune system that is frantically making replacements. The latest studies, however, suggest that different pathways of CD4 ...