The T-cell Killer HHV-6 May Not Even Need HIV to Destroy The Cells That Prevent Opportunistic Infections
by Neenyah Ostrom NEW YORK NATIVE/May 22, 1995 What sets off the cascade of events that results in the destruction of the immune systems of "AIDS" patients? Although the putative causal agent of the syndrome, HIV, is believed to orchestrate the immune system's collapse, no one has been able to explain how it does it. Meanwhile, another virus, Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV-6), has been found to kill immune system cells directly-including T-cells, the loss of which is the agreed-upon hallmark of the syndrome-without any mystery or putative indirect mechanisms that have been attributed to HIV. Now, new research from Robert Gallo's National Cancer Institute of Tumor Cell Biology reveals that HHV-6 infection is required for HIV to be able to infect some T-cells. Not only is HHV-6 able to infect and kill these T-cells that HIV is unable to infect, these are the very T-cells that are meant to defend against HHV-6 infection. Therefore, HHV-6 is able to elude de