Viruses, Aging, and Chronic Lung Disease

[...]the investigators demonstrated the persistence of viral proteins in the lungs of many patients on ART, and that exposure of monocyte-derived macrophages to gp120 alone resulted in all of the pneumococcal phagocytic and apoptotic defects seen in macrophages after exposure to whole virus. [...]a comparison of transcriptional activity in alveolar macrophages from HIV-infected subjects and healthy volunteers showed no significant differences, although the latter result is limited significantly by the low number of subjects studied in these experiments (HIV, n = 8; healthy, n = 5). [...]the subjects in the study by Collini and colleagues demonstrated a more profound immune defect at the time of HIV diagnosis, which is known to impact an individual's ability to recover normal immune function even in the presence of good viral control (14).