It seems a cure for AIDS is nearer than we think. Just last month, scientists from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis had found that bee venom had the potential to destroy HIV cells, while leaving the body unharmed. Now, scientists from Oxford University, Cambridge University, Imperial College London, University College London, and King’s College London have announced that a British man could become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV.
There are no traces of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the man’s blood, who was the first in a trial of 50 people currently undergoing a treatment, dubbed ‘shock and kill’, that targets HIV whether it is active or in its dormant state. The 44-year-old social worker is making “remarkable progress” and has no signs of HIV.
“I took part in the trial to help others as well as myself. My last blood test was a couple of weeks ago and there is no detectable virus. It would be a massive achievement if, after all these years, something is found to cure people of this disease. The fact that I was a part of that would be incredible.”
Current HIV treatments, called anti-retroviral therapies (Art), fail to cure HIV because HIV targets T-cells involved in the immune system and integrates into its DNA. Since the present anti-retroviral therapies target HIV-infected active T-cells but fail to spot HIV-infected dormant T-cells, the patient’s body continues to produce the lethal virus and never gets rid of HIV.
However, the ‘shock and kill’ treatment not only annihilates the HIV-infected active cells, it also kills the reservoir of HIV-infected dormant cells in the patient’s body. The new therapy works in two stages. It begins with a vaccine that helps the body recognize HIV-infected active T-cells, so that the immune system can clear them out. Then a drug called Vorinostat activates the HIV-infected dormant T-cells, so the immune system can spot and destroy them.
Professor Sarah Fidler, a consultant physician at Imperial College London, told The Sunday Times:
“This therapy is specifically designed to clear the body of all HIV viruses, including dormant ones. It has worked in the laboratory and there is good evidence it will work in humans too, but we must stress we are still a long way from any actual therapy. 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.”
Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure, stated:
“This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it’s still in its early days but the progress has been remarkable.”
While about 37 million are infected worldwide, more than 100,000 people in Britain are living with HIV, and sadly, about 17% do not even know they have the disease. Though the latest results seem very promising, it remains to be seen whether HIV will return in the now-cured man, or if the rest of the patientd undergoing trial will respond in a similar way. Nevertheless, this is an important step towards a world free of the fear of HIV.
We welcome this news — but cautiously. It’s the very beginning of a long process in potentially finding an #HIV cure https://t.co/ESPsWu7kSy
— TerrenceHigginsTrust (@THTorguk) October 2, 2016
Ian Green, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, noted:
“HIV treatment currently focuses on reducing the amount of HIV in the blood to ‘undetectable’ levels, meaning the patient stays well and the virus cannot be transmitted. However, there is still no cure for HIV, and we welcome this ambitious study which looks to eradicate the virus completely from the bodies of people living with HIV, instead of suppressing it. It’s very early days, but we hope the results will help future studies on the way to finding a cure in years to come.”
So far, only one person – Timothy Brown – has ever been cured of HIV. Brown’s HIV was eradicated in 2007 after he underwent a treatment in Germany for his leukemia. His cancer of the white blood cells is in remission, and there are no signs of HIV in his blood.
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