HIV Cure Reportedly Within Reach As Virus “Vanishes” Under New Drug Therapy

Researchers say this is “one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV.
From: NewNowNext

British researchers at five UK universities believe they are on track to finding a cure for HIV after developing a new therapy that has essentially “cured” one man of the virus.

The 44-year-old man is one of 50 people currently trialling the treatment, which is different from current treatments because it targets the virus in its dormant state.

The Telegraph reports:

HIV is so difficult to treat because it targets the immune system, splicing itself into the DNA of T-cells so that they not only ignore the disease, but turn into viral factories which reproduce the virus.

Current treatments, called anti-retroviral therapies (Art), target that process but they cannot spot dormant infected T-cells.

The new therapy works in two stages. Firstly, a vaccine helps the body recognise the HIV-infected cells so it can clear them out. Secondly, a new drug called Vorinostat activates the dormant T-cells so they can be spotted by the immune system.

Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure, said it’s “one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV.”

“We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV,” said Samuels. “This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days but the progress has been remarkable.”

Professor Sarah Fidler, a consultant physician at Imperial College London, said researchers will continue testing the patient for the next five years and are not recommending he stop his current ART regimen.

The unidentified patient, a social care worker in London, said “it would be great if a cure has happened,” and confirmed that his last blood test, taken a couple of weeks ago, found “no detectible virus.”

He added: “I took part in the trial to help others as well as myself. 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.”