Scientists caught a glimpse of the most detailed depiction of the HIV infection to date inside of the tissue of an infected organism, according to a report by New Scientists.
Researchers from Caltech used electron microscopes with ultra-high resolution to look at the HIV virus waiting to attack the intestines on "humanized" test mice, according to electron microscope scientist Mark Ladinsky, who headed up the study with Caltech professors Pamela Bjorkman and Max Delbruck.
Ladinsky told New Scientist that the new finding was a huge step in observing the deadly virus in a normal setting, revealing information on the way HIV invades the body by attacking immune cells and spreading quickly.
"This is the next step in studying how the virus interacts with immune cells in its natural environment, not in a Petri dish," Ladinsky stated.
The virus is known to lurk in the gut, waiting until the right moment to strike and spread. But Ladinsky told the New Scientist that none of the researchers participating in the study anticipated such high numbers of the virus, which appeared to circle in large pools.
Ladinsky, Bjorkman and Delbruk employed a method called electron tomography, which embeds a tissue sample in plastic that can be viewed under a microscope. Pictures taken of the rotating sample are then aligned with each other and switched into a 3-D image that displays various places in the volume, shown pixel-by-pixel.
Scientists were most taken aback by the "pools" discovery of HIV in between cells. This grouping shows that the virus has the ability to attach new cells by viruses in the same tissue, or via direct contact. Additionally, it proves previously unconfirmed notions that HIV hides out in the gut.
"The next step is to try and image what HIV virus looks like in the intestines of human patients," Ladinsky told New Science. "Especially in those who are taking antiretroviral drugs and those who can control it on their own."