Researchers identify possible key to slow progression toward
AIDS One of the big mysteries of AIDS is why some HIV-positive
people take more than a decade to progress to full-blown AIDS,
if they progress at all. Although the average time between HIV
infection and AIDS in the absence of antiretroviral treatment is
about 10 years, some individuals succumb within two years, while
so-called slow progressors can stay healthy for 20 years or
longer. Researchers already know that many slow progressors
carry a gene called HLA-B*57 (B57), an immune gene variant that
is found in less than 5 percent of the general population but in
40 to 85 percent of slow progressors. Yet even among those with
the B57 gene, the speed of disease progression can vary
considerably. Now, a group of investigators from the Multi-
Center AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), housed within the UCLA AIDS
Institute, may have uncovered the key to this variation. It is a
killer T-cell immune response that occurs early on in HIV
infection and targets a section