[Tribute to Scientists] How is AIDS detected?

As we all know, AIDS is a major infectious disease that endangers human health. Although the 40 years of human struggle against AIDS have been difficult, the results are remarkable, and AIDS is now preventable and controllable. When a person suspects that he or she is infected with AIDS, what is the right way to do it? What is the principle of AIDS testing? Who has made great contributions to AIDS testing? Follow Pangke to find the answers in this article!

If you can be alert immediately after engaging in high-risk behavior, you can still take "regret medicine" and take AIDS prevention drugs as prescribed by your doctor within 72 hours.

Although blocking drugs cannot kill the virus directly, they can suppress the virus and hinder its replication, thus cutting off HIV's wanton "slaughter" of immune cells. Therefore, the earlier the drug is taken, the better the blocking effect. Then, the first AIDS test should be conducted 4 weeks after high-risk behavior.

However, if you do not want to go to the hospital for testing due to some considerations, you can also buy the test reagents for self-testing. The test reagents are produced by different manufacturers, and the samples that need to be collected are also different, including blood samples, oral exudate or urine. It is more convenient than going to the hospital, but the disadvantage is that due to individual operation, reagent storage and other factors, the accuracy of self-testing will be relatively lower. Therefore, in addition to self-testing, the most accurate method of HIV testing is to go to a medical institution for testing.

At this point, some people may ask, what principles are these screening methods based on to determine whether someone is infected with HIV?

This involves the principle of HIV testing.

The commonly used HIV detection methods in China belong to the category of immunological detection methods. Immunological detection methods are to determine whether the human body contains specific antibodies to the HIV virus or whether there are viral antigens by designing biological molecules.

Here we need to explain a concept called the window period, which refers to the time from viral infection to the time when it can be detected. The window period for antibody testing is generally 4-12 weeks, which means that it will take 4-12 weeks from the start of high-risk behavior to accurately detect whether the virus is infected. Therefore, the shorter the window period, the earlier it can be detected and corresponding treatment and protection can be carried out. After all, although antibodies cannot be detected during the "window period", the virus may have already replicated in the body, which is also contagious.

In addition to immunological methods, nucleic acid testing can also be used to determine whether a person is infected with the HIV virus.

This method confirms infection by checking whether there is viral nucleic acid in the body and how much viral nucleic acid is replicated. This method of detection is very sensitive, with a window period of only 1-4 weeks, but the reagent price and instrument equipment are generally higher than those of immunological detection methods, so this method has not been popularized for a long time. However, with the rapid development of our country's economy, nucleic acid detection methods are gradually being promoted and applied.

When it comes to AIDS testing, one person must be mentioned, and that is Academician Zeng Yi, a famous virologist and oncologist in my country.

As early as 1981, when the first case report of AIDS was published in the United States, Academician Zeng Yi was keenly aware that the disease might be introduced into China and cause serious consequences. Since 1983, he has introduced relevant materials from France, Germany and Japan to accumulate relevant knowledge and technology.

As a pioneer in AIDS research in my country, Academician Zeng Yi has achieved many firsts in AIDS research. In the absence of a strictly protected biosafety level 3 laboratory at the time, Academician Zeng Yi and a technician completed the isolation of the HIV virus and isolated the first HIV virus in China (HIV-1AC strain).

Academician Zeng Yi was the first to start a retrospective study on AIDS and found that although the HIV virus was first discovered in my country in 1985, the HIV virus had come to China as early as 1982 along with blood products from the United States and Europe and infected Chinese citizens.

He also quickly used molecular biology methods to create rapid diagnostic reagents, enabling my country to have its own diagnostic reagents at an early stage. With the approval of the former Ministry of Health, he prepared the reagents and supplied them nationwide.

At that time, there were no AIDS diagnostic reagents in China, so the importance of developing diagnostic reagents was self-evident. Since then, Academician Zeng Yi has been committed to exploring AIDS treatment methods for many years. At that time when everyone was "terrified of AIDS", Academician Zeng Yi, with the courage and responsibility of a medical scientist, was not afraid of danger and dared to be the first.

Of course, as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academician Zeng Yi’s achievements and contributions go far beyond this.
In addition to his research on HIV virus, Zeng Yi has also made great achievements in the field of Epstein-Barr virus and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Zeng Yi and others established the world's first highly differentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma cancer cell line (CNE-1) and the first poorly differentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma cancer cell line (CNE-2), proposed a hypothesis on the cause of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and established a series of serological diagnostic methods for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which greatly increased the early diagnosis rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma from 20-30% to 80-90%, helping patients to detect and treat early, which is of great benefit to improving the survival rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.

Academician Zeng Yi also conducted research on other viruses, such as human T-lymphotropic leukemia virus (HTLV-1) and human papillomavirus (HPV), which not only made great contributions to China's health cause, but also contributed to the development of health for all mankind.

In addition to his work as a scientist for AIDS prevention and control in China, Academician Zeng Yi has also done a lot of publicity work. He once said: "The most effective way to prevent HIV infection and avoid contracting AIDS is to popularize knowledge about AIDS transmission and keep the public alert to AIDS at all times."

What can really kill HIV may be effective treatments, advanced biotechnology, or special drugs, but the ultimate magic weapon to defeat infectious diseases must be disease prevention and control.

May mankind defeat AIDS as soon as possible.

Creative team: China Science and Technology Museum New Media Team Review expert: Zhang Xiaoguang Deputy Director and Researcher of Academician Zeng Yi's Laboratory, Institute of Viral Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention This article comes from: China Digital Science and Technology Museum