HIV infection has many unhealthy consequences on the body, but in particular it messes up the gut. The human intestine has the highest concentration of HIV target cells, the majority of which are destroyed within days of infection, and before CD4 T cell counts drop measurably in the blood. A study published on January 30th in PLOS Pathogens reports the first three-dimensional ultra-structural study of HIV infection in vivo. Not only does it reveal details on how the virus quickly infects immune cells in the gut, using them as virus-producing factories, but it also highlights where the virus "hides out" deep within the intestinal tissue.
