Identification of the CD8+ Cell Antiviral Factor (CAF)

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Sponsor: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Location(s): United States

Description

 For years, scientists have been intrigued that a small percentage of people with HIV live for 10, 15 years or more with no progression to AIDS. Dr. Jay Levy observed in the 1980s that certain immune cells of those people, known as long-term nonprogressors, produced something that keeps the virus at bay. Since then, researchers have sought to identify this substance, called CD8 antiviral factor (CAF), after the type of immune cell that supposedly produces it.