Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive

by Philipp Dettmer

So let us summarize the tactic of HIV real quick before we move on: By infecting Dendritic Cells, the virus gets a taxi into HIV heaven: The lymph nodes, which are filled top to bottom with Helper T Cells. HIV can build reservoirs in these cells and stay hidden indefinitely. When Helper T Cells begin to proliferate massively, they do so at lymph nodes, which is the ideal place for HIV to also make millions of new viruses. So the place that is most central to building protection against viruses is completely taken over and actually becomes a weak point. This is still not the worst part. Think about what HIV really does by specifically attacking T Cells: It destroys and kills the cells that the Adaptive Immune System needs to properly activate B Cells and Killer T Cells. Still your Immune System does not give up. An epic struggle begins that will go on for years. Every day, HIV makes billions of new viruses and your immune system reacts in kind with new antibodies and new Killer T Cells. A push and pull of death and rebirth, a struggle for survival on both sides. This struggle can take up to ten or more years and usually comes with very few noticeable side effects—which in a perverse twist enables an infected person to serve as a reservoir and infect others. And although your immune system is giving its all, the cards are stacked against you. Not only are your Helper T Cells constantly being infected by HIV, Killer T Cells viciously hunt them down too. (That is because, if y...