Macrophage interactions with HIV-1-infected T cells

人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）主要是一种性传播感染。保护身体免受这些感染的组织被称为粘膜表面。被引入粘膜表面的HIV-1不能存活很长时间，必须感染某些类型的细胞才能进行复制。第一批被感染的细胞类型是CD4 T细胞和巨噬细胞。巨噬细胞是一种专业的清道夫杀手细胞，它可以追踪感染因子，如HIV及其所在的细胞，并将其消灭。巨噬细胞执行病毒杀伤活性和自身感染之间的平衡可能是微妙的，我们打算研究是否可以使巨噬细胞更抵抗HIV感染。抵抗HIV感染的巨噬细胞可能会在病毒感染我们的细胞之前杀死病毒。如果我们可以在实验室的组织培养中实现这一点，这可能会导致开发出可以在人体中达到同样效果的药物，减少或预防HIV-1感染。

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is mainly a sexually-transmitted infection. The tissues which protect the body from these infections are called mucosal surfaces. HIV-1 introduced onto a mucosal surface can not survive for long, and must infect certain cells types in which it can replicate. Some of the first cell types to become infected are called CD4 T cells and macrophages. Macrophages are professional scavenger-killer cells that track down infectious agents such as HIV and the cells they live in, and eliminate them. The balance between macrophages carrying out their virus killing activity and becoming infected themselves may be delicate, and we intend to study whether macrophages can be made more resistant to HIV infection. Macrophages resistant to HIV infection might then kill the virus before it can infect our cells. If we can achieve this in tissue culture in the laboratory, this may lead to the development of drugs that can achieve the same effect in people, reducing or preventing infection by HIV-1.