HIV has completely disappeared from the blood of a patient in clinical trials. The new HIV treatment that can target the virus even in its dormant state by activating latent infected cells and could possibly become the first HIV cure available.
These
initial results show that the new therapy, developed in the
UK, may be effective in
curing HIV. One of
50 patients enrolled in the
RIVER trials performed by researchers from the
UK CHERUB collaboration (Oxford University, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London and King’s College London) and partly funded by
MSD and
GSK, has been
cleared of HIV.
However, the trial results won’t be ready until
2018 and
there is still lots to be achieved towards an HIV cure. This British man is just
the first of all those patients to be treated and tested for preliminary results.
HIV affects millions of people and can have severe effects in a patient’s life.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is currently the most common treatment, which kills those cells in which the virus is active. However, HIV can remain inactive and
undetectable inside T-cells for long periods of time. Targeting this
latent population of infected cells is one of the main challenges of treating HIV.
This new therapy is designed to
activate dormant T-cells and help the immune system
eliminate all infected cells. If effective, it could mean the
complete clearance of the virus from the patients.
However, the
CHERUB group and a
BBC reporter are cautioning the public against premature conclusions. The results from this first patient only indicate that the treatment is
safe and well tolerated. Although there’s no sign of the virus in the patient’s bloodstream,
this also occurs in ART. The complete elimination of dormant HIV
cannot be fully confirmed yet, and he could still relapse in the future.
This is actually
not the first time a person has been
‘cured’ of HIV. The
‘Berlin patient’ Timothy Ray Brown received a transplant of hematopoietic stem cells in
2008 from a donor naturally resistant to HIV and hasn’t required ART since then. However, almost
ten years later, there is still plenty of work to do until a
safe and
effective therapy is developed.
In any case, the
positive results from this new approach still positions the science
one step closer to finding an HIV cure. There’s plenty of researchers working in amazing
innovative techniques to tackle the disease and a cure is expected as early as 2020!
Featured figure credit: cherub.uk.net
Figure 1 credit: Alila Medical Media/shutterstock.com
