Scientists closer to HIV cure as patient tests show ‘promising’ results
Researchers under a collaborative UK effort are hopeful that they are one step closer to finding a cure for HIV after reporting that their first participant has completed the new treatment that was found to be “safe and well-tolerated”.
Six years ago, five universities in the UK have entered a partnership headed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure (NOCRI) to attempt to find a cure for HIV. They formed CHERUB (Collaborative HIV Eradication of viral Reservoirs: UK BRC), a new approach to HIV therapeutics in the UK, which brought together, amongst others, clinicians, virologists, immunologists, molecular biologists and mathematical modelers under the umbrella of the NIHR.
The team, comprised of researchers from Oxford University, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, King’s College London and University College London, has designed a new treatment which targets the disease even in its dormant state. They are currently trialing the therapy on 50 participants.
Scientists said that in the latest blood tests of one of its participants, a 44-year-old British man, the virus is completely undetectable in the man’s blood. Although this could be a result of regular drugs as the scientists also note that the participants are also receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) – the standard treatments currently used.
ART works by stopping HIV from copying itself and spreading. It reduces the amount of virus in the blood stream to such low levels that it prevents the virus from being passed on to others, and gives the body’s immune system a chance to recover.
But ART only works on HIV-infected cells that are active, and most cells infected with HIV in the human body contain resting or “sleeping” virus. These cells represent an invisible reservoir of HIV, and are one of the reasons it is so difficult to cure the infection. The virus usually returns if ART is stopped.
However, if the dormant cells are also cleared out in the new treatment trials, it could represent the first complete cure. Trial results are expected to be published in 2018.
This new therapy works in two stages. The first stage includes a vaccine that helps the body recognize the HIV-infected cells so it can clear them out. In the second stage, a new drug called Vorinostat activates the dormant cells so they can be spotted by the immune system as well.
Professor Sarah Fidler, a consultant physician at Imperial College London, said that the new therapy is specifically designed to clear the body of all HIV viruses, including dormant ones. She added that I t has worked in the laboratory and there is good evidence that the treatment will work in humans as well.
But she stresses that they are still a long way from any actual treatment. “We will continue with medical tests for the next five years and at the moment we are not recommending stopping ART but in the future depending on the test results we may explore this,” she said.
