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HIV–1 dynamics revisited: biphasic decay by cytotoxic T lymphocyte killing?

2000; Royal Society; Volume: 267; Issue: 1450 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1098/rspb.2000.1149

1471-2954

Ramy Arnaout, Nowak Martin A., Dominik Wodarz,

T-cell and B-cell Immunology

The biphasic decay of blood viraemia in patients being treated for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection has been explained as the decay of two distinct populations of cells: the rapid death of productively infected cells followed by the much slower elimination of a second population the identity of which remains unknown. Here we advance an alternative explanation based on the immune response against a single population of infected cells. We show that the biphasic decay can be explained simply, without invoking multiple compartments: viral load falls quickly while cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) are still abundant, and more slowly as CTL disappear. We propose a method to test this idea, and develop a framework that is readily applicable to treatment of other infections.