Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of
California, San Francisco, have revealed new hope for HIV
treatment with the discovery of a way to 'rescue' immune cells
that are exhausted from fighting off HIV infection. The team
lead by Drs. Mario Ostrowski, of the University of Toronto's
Faculty of Medicine, and Douglas Nixon, of the Division of
Experimental Medicine at the University of California, San
Francisco, has discovered that a molecule called Tim-3 is
present at high levels on poorly functional immune system cells
which are 'exhausted' from fighting HIV infection. The
researchers found that blocking the activity of Tim-3 on these
cells improved their function and allowed them to rejoin the
battle against HIV. "In the typical course of HIV infection, an
initial burst of very high levels of the HIV virus is brought
partially under control by the infected person's immune system,
specifically by an immune system cell called a CD8+ killer T
cell. In the majority of cases without antiretro