Immune System Receptor Identified as Possible Key to HIV Brain Infection
From Times staff and wire reports
An immune system receptor called CCR3 may be the key to how the AIDS virus gets into brain cells, Boston physicians report. Researchers had previously shown that a related receptor, called CCR5, is crucial for infection of immune cells by HIV, but the new results are the first indication that CCR3 plays an important role as well.
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report in the Feb. 13 issue of the journal Nature that both CCR3 and CCR5 receptors present in the brain could promote infection of the central nervous system by some strains of HIV.
