HIV infection theory challenged

London: Scientists are challenging a longstanding theory of how HIV slowly depletes the body's capacity to fight infection.

HIV attacks human immune cells, called T helper cells. Loss of these cells is gradual, often taking many years.

It was thought infected cells produced more HIV particles and this caused the body to activate more T cells, which in turn were infected and died.

But Imperial College London modelling suggests if that was true, cells would die out in months, not years.

The imperial team used a mathematical model of the processes by which T cells are produced and eliminated.