Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have found the highly sensitive test to detect a dormant virus resides in the immune cells and gives the more accurate HIV test. Previously, the dormant HIV virus was hidden and undetectable.
The researchers have found the way to detect an HIV virus more accurately. Furthermore, the method is faster and less expensive than the existing HIV test. This more accurate HIV test has moved closer to find the cure.
According to the news release, the more accurate HIV test was discovered by the scientists from the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. This new test is able to detect the hidden HIV virus that stays dormant. The team of researchers was led by the Professor and Vice Chair of Pitt Public Health’s Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Phalguni Gupta, Ph.D.
“Globally there are substantial efforts to cure people of HIV," Professor Gupta said regarding the need for more accurate HIV test. “But those efforts aren’t going to progress if we don’t have tests that are sensitive and practical enough to tell doctors if someone is truly cured.”
The research from the University of Pittsburgh has found that the hidden HIV virus in people who seem to be nearly cured turns out to be 70-fold larger than earlier estimation. Their new and more accurate HIV test is called the TZA test. They have published the research in the journal Nature Medicine titled "Novel Assay Reveals a Large, Inducible, Replication-Competent HIV-1 Reservoir In Resting CD4+ T Cells."
HIV virus spreads by infecting the CD4+ T-cells, white blood cells that protect the body from infection. However, the research found that majority of DNA from the virus that infected the cells have been defective, so it would not cause infection immediately. Therefore, a more accurate HIV test is needed by detecting a gene that replicating the HIV virus.
The more accurate HIV test from University Pittsburgh is far more cost effective and far more accurate than the recent HIV test. Watch the footage of the HIV test below:
