Apr. 2, 2008 Researchers have discovered how Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, can hide itself
in our cells and dodge the attention of our normal defences,
scientists explained on 1 April 2008 at the Society for General
Microbiology's 162nd meeting being held at the Edinburgh
International Conference Centre. When a normal virus such as the
common cold infects people we develop an immune response and
produce defence cells which can quickly get rid of the virus.
But when HIV infects us it can last for our whole life. HIV does
this by successfully hiding from our immune cells, which are
seeking to identify and destroy the virus, fooling them into
thinking that it is part of the normal trash in a cell rather
than being clearly visible on the cell surface. "HIV can make a
protein called Nef, which helps the virus hide. Nef interferes
with one important part of our defences which helps our immune
system recognise infected cells by displaying pieces of the
infecting virus or bacteria on the cell