To understand what Bob is teaching us, Dr. Migueles contrasted him with what we now know about how most people react to HIV. Like Bob, they also recognize and confront the virus. They might even recognize and mount a response to the same pieces of virus. The key difference between the immune responses in patients like Bob and the mainstream way of attacking HIV appears to involve the quality and strength of the response. Bob’s CD8 T cells proliferate, or reproduce themselves, to high levels when they reencounter HIV. As they do so, they increase their killing machinery and load their guns to
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