艾滋病病毒一般存在于血液和体液中，但美国研究人员在一项新研究中发现，艾滋病病毒可在骨髓中藏匿，并伺机造成新的感染。
美国密歇根大学的研究人员在本周出版的英国期刊《自然―医学》（Natur Medicine）上报告说，他们在艾滋病病毒携带者的骨髓中发现了艾滋病病毒，这一发现为今后更有效地治疗艾滋病提供了新途径。
报告指出，藏匿于骨髓的艾滋病病毒处于“休眠”状态，一旦“苏醒”过来便会进入血细胞并重新活跃起来，进而感染、破坏其他血细胞。目前科研人员正在开发新疗法，以便杀死藏身于骨髓的艾滋病病毒。
报告的主要撰稿人凯瑟琳柯林斯说，近年对艾滋病病毒携带者的治疗证明，当药物在抵抗活跃的艾滋病病毒时，一些艾滋病病毒会隐藏起来，当药物治疗停止后，隐藏的这些病毒又开始作乱。此前的研究发现，艾滋病病毒主要藏匿于血浆巨噬细胞和记忆性T细胞中。
艾滋病病毒是一种能攻击人体免疫系统的病毒。它把人体免疫系统中最重要的T4淋巴细胞作为攻击目标，大量吞噬、破坏T4淋巴细胞，从而破坏人体免疫系统，最终使免疫系统崩溃，导致人体丧失对各种疾病的抵抗力。
原文出处：
Nature Medicine doi:10.1038/nm.2109
HIV-1 infects multipotent progenitor cells causing cell death and establishing latent cellular reservoirs
Christoph C Carter,Adewunmi Onafuwa-Nuga,Lucy A McNamara,James Riddell IV,Dale Bixby,Michael R Savona" Kathleen L Collins
HIV causes a chronic infection characterized by depletion of CD4+ T lymphocytes and the development of opportunistic infections. Despite drugs that inhibit viral spread, HIV infection has been difficult to cure because of uncharacterized reservoirs of infected cells that are resistant to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and the immune response. Here we used CD34+ cells from infected people as well as in vitro studies of wild-type HIV to show infection and killing of CD34+ multipotent hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs). In some HPCs, we detected latent infection that stably persisted in cell culture until viral gene expression was activated by differentiation factors. A unique reporter HIV that directly detects latently infected cells in vitro confirmed the presence of distinct populations of active and latently infected HPCs. These findings have major implications for understanding HIV bone marrow pathology and the mechanisms by which HIV causes persistent infection.
