Remission of Drugs After Treatment Increases Hopes of Finding HIV Cure

There are 1.5 million deaths a year due to HIV and 35 million people are living with HIV, which increases the immediate need for a cure.

At the recent International AIDS Society conference, it was described that a cure for HIV remains elusive. But scientists say that the hunt for an HIV cure has been more hopeful based on the prospects of a new research.

Scientists //reported on progress on gene therapy and using antibodies to neutralize HIV, research into why some HIV-infected people are able to stay in remission of drugs after treatment, and a hypothesis that vaccines, yet to be invented, could be used to "shock and kill" the virus in HIV-infected people.

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"Insights into the virus, its progression and the body's response to HIV are helping to narrow and concentrate the focus of the HIV cure research agenda," said Francoise Barre-Sinoussi of France's Pasteur Institute, a Nobel Laureate and former IAS president.

Christopher Peterson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, released findings from a study on modified stem cells in monkeys. The researchers successfully "edited" cells to block HIV from entering immune system cells through pathways known as "Trojan horse" receptors.

"With enough protected cells the virus shouldn't be able to spread and we'd be looking at functional cure," Peterson told reporters at AIDS 2015 in this Western Canadian city, attended by some 6,000 scientists and other HIV experts.

New Research Boosts the Quest for HIV Cure
From several small trials presented at an AIDS conference, fresh data provides encouraging news in the quest for a cure for HIV, scientists said.

Peterson was awarded the HIV Cure prize at a "CURE" symposium held in advance of the AIDS 2015 conference, noted Barre-Sinoussi.

Another study, led by John Mascola of the US National Institutes of Health, administered HIV-1 monoclonal antibodies to eight HIV-infected people. Within three months of a receiving one antibody infusion, the plasma viral load in six of the people "decreased by approximately 10 to 50 fold," said Mascola's report.

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It said the two people unaffected by the infusion carried an HIV strain resistant to the antibody used. Antibodies may have several uses in treating HIV, Mascola told a press conference, including the possibility of helping to "kill the viral reservoir" hiding in the cells of infected people.

"None of the new findings have yet led to practical treatments, and all raise more questions than answer questions. They will lead to bigger studies, which will often fail, but lead to more studies. That is how science plays out." said Steven Deeks of the University of California, San Francisco.

Mechanism for Spontaneous HIV 'Cure' Found
Genetic mechanism for a spontaneous cure in two HIV-infected men has been found by French scientists, they claimed Tuesday. They proposed a new strategy for combating AIDS.

Asier Saez-Cirion of the Institut Pasteur in Paris led research on a French girl infected with HIV at birth, whose family stopped her treatment after several years, and who then was able to remain healthy for 12 years. But just how she has been able to stay in remissions for so long remains poorly understood.

"Less than 1% of total (global) AIDS funding is for cure. AIDS and HIV are not a big deal, that we've solved it, when the reality is there are still two million new infections and 1.5 million deaths a year from HIV, and 35 million people living with HIV," said Australian scientist Sharon Lewin.

Lewin told reporters the next steps in "cure" research include clinical trials on helping infected people stay in remission after stopping treatment with anti-retroviral medications, treatments to "shock and cure" the virus and bolstering the immune systems of patients.

Source-AFP