HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is a master of disguise. It has the ability to change its outer coat of proteins frequently. This quick-change act makes it hard for the immune system to recognise it and destroid it. But what makes HIV even harder to kill is that it targets one of the most important cells in the immune system for fighting infection. technically called a CD4+ cell, this cell is more commonly known as a Helper T cell. You can think of Helper T cells as the air traffic controllers of the immune system. The immune system's job is to protect the body from dangerous traitors, like cancer, and harmful intruders, like viruses and bacteria. Overlapping networks of immune cells are constanly talking to each other and coordinating their efforts. its a lot like airplanes zipping around in a busy airspace. The Helper T cells sit at the heart of many of these networks. It does things like tell one group of immune cells, the killer T cells, to target HIV and destroy it. Or Helper T cells tell another group of immune defenders, the so called B cells, to make antibodies that attack the virus.
Now imagine if all the air traffic controllers started to disappear one by one. None of the other cells in the remaining networks would know where to go or what to do. The whole system would have trouble fighting not just HIV but many other illnesses as well. Indeed, that's what we see in people with AIDS. They become sick with ailments our immune system is usually better at fighting off. Tuberculosis, meningitis, rare forms of pneumonia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and cervical cancer. HIV doesn't fight fair. It attacks the very cells that would coordinate its destruction. In order to boost the immune system against HIV, we need to get the Helper T cells back in control.
Source: Christine Gorman
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