HIV Hiding from Drugs in Gut, Preventing Immune Recovery

UC Davis researchers have discovered that the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS, is able to survive efforts to destroy it by hiding out in the mucosal tissues of the intestine. They also found that HIV continues to replicate in the gut mucosa, suppressing immune function in patients being treated with antiretroviral therapy—even when blood samples from the same individuals indicated the treatment was working. Results of the three-year study appear in the August issue of the Journal of Virology.