Could treatment of HHV-6A co-infections slow AIDS progression?
A group led by Dr. Bradford Berges from Brigham Young University infected humanized mice with HHV-6A and demonstrated evidence for both acute and persistent infection, indicating a new model to study HHV-6A infection in vivo, according to a new report published in Journal of Virology. Infection was accompanied by depletion of specific thymocyte populations as well as detection of elevated levels of CD4+CD8+ T cells in blood. Human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A) infects helper T cells and has been suggested to act as a co-factor in AIDS progression. These findings provide additional evidence that HHV-6A infection has a significant impact on human T cell populations in vivo. READ MORE