Natural HIV Barrier Snares AIDS Virus.
A natural barrier to HIVsnares and destroys the AIDS virus.
The newly discovered barrier is a powerful first line of defense against HIV infection.
But at least one new strategy for preventing HIV transmission may
breach this barrier, inadvertently opening the door to infection.
HIV targets T cells, a type of immune cell.
It gets to T cells via a type of skin cell called a dendritic cell.
Dendritic cells are supposed to warn T cells about foreign invaders.
But HIV subverts this line of communication and uses dendritic cells to carry an infectious virus to the T cells.
That doesn't happen if HIV first encounters a specialized kind of dendritic cell called a Langerhans cell.
It's hard for HIV to infect Langerhans cells -- and now scientists know why.
It's because the cells carry a special molecule, dubbed Langerin.
Langerin grabs HIV and throws it in a kind of garbage disposal within the Langerhans cell, find Lot de Witte of Vrije University, Amsterdam, and colleagues.
When the researchers disabled the Langerin molecule, HIV easily infected Langerhans cells.
"Thus Langerin is a natural barrier to HIV infection," de Witte and colleagues conclude.
"HIV Prevention Method Has Flaw"
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