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Peptide-based Identification of Functional Motifs and their Binding Partners
Published on: June 30, 2013
Immune activation is a dominant factor in the pathogenesis of African AIDS
Z Bentwich1, A Kalinkovich, Z Weisman
1R. Ben-Ari Institute of Clinical Immunology, Kaplan Hospital, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Rehovot, Israel.
Abstract:
The AIDS epidemic in Africa is very different from the epidemic in the West. As suggested here by Zvi Bentwich, Alexander Kalinkovich and Ziva Weisman, this appears to be primarily a consequence of the over-activation of the immune system in the African population, owing to the extremely high prevalence of infections, particularly helminthic, in Africa. Such activation shifts the cytokine balance towards a T helper 0/2 (Th0/2)-type response, which makes the host more susceptible to infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and less able to cope with it.
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