Dr. Warner Greene, Director, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, UCSF

Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI), a research center dedicated to fundamental studies of modern virology and immunology with a focus on HIV and AIDS. The J. David Gladstone Institutes, of which the GIVI is one, are at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Greene is the senior author of a study, due to be posted online today in the British magazine Nature, that provides a clearer picture than ever before of why HIV can infect "activated" CD4 T-cells but cannot infect "resting" CD4 T-cells. Since adequate numbers and the proper functioning of T-cells are essential for the effective operation of the human immune system, the unchecked infection by HIV of T-cells will eventually destroy it, leaving those with compromised immunity vulnerable to an array of potentially lethal infections.

To access a very well-written press release from the UC NewsWire describing this discovery, click on the title of the announcement, "Gladstone investigators discover how resting T cells avoid HIV infection.".

To access a profusely-illustrated and layperson-oriented version of the Nature article, which explains in detail the mechanisms that protect "resting" T-cells but leave "activated" ones vulnerable to attack by HIV, click its title, "Why HIV Cannot Infect Resting CD4 T-Cells".

As explained in these papers, what accounts, in essence, for this difference in HIV infectious effectiveness is the presence of an "anti-viral shield" generated by a factor called APOBEC3G (A3G), which is present in "resting" T-cells in a small version that can prevent HIV replication but which, in "activated" T-cells, is found in a larger form that is vulnerable to HIV predation, since it is unable to block its replication.

Etopia Media Medical News Network spoke today by phone with Dr. Greene, who was in Banf Springs, Alberta, Canada, attending an HIV conference, about this important new finding and its implications for the development of future treatments for HIV/AIDS.

You can listen to that audio interview with Dr. Warner Greene, Director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology at UCSF, in its exclusive entirety, by clicking here.

In that interview, Dr. Greene makes use of the word "virion," which is "a complete virus particle with its DNA or RNA core and protein coat as it exists outside the cell. Also called a viral particle."