Is a cure for HIV close?
A new study has remarkable implications for treating a disease that used to be a death sentence.
The story of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is tinged with deep sorrow and profound loss —with more than 40 million people having died from the disease around the world.
Yet, there’s also a sense of awe at how far we’ve come at managing what once used to be a death sentence. Scientific discoveries mean that people who have access to treatment can now live as long as those without the disease.
Still, patients need to take daily medicines and a complete cure has been out of reach.
People who take antiretroviral therapy are able to suppress the HIV virus so it becomes undetectable but that doesn’t mean it is completely gone from the body. Small levels of the virus still hide away — and the key to completely curing HIV is to be able to get ride of these.
But a new discovery has the potential to change that.
Apoorva Mandavilli reports in the New York Times:
Potent antiretroviral drugs can now control H.I.V., suppressing it to undetectable levels. Still, minute amounts of the virus lie dormant in so-called reservoirs, waiting for an opportunity to resurge. A cure for H.I.V. would involve ferreting out all of this virus and destroying it, a strategy that has been called “shock and kill.”
A significant hurdle is that the virus lies dormant in a particular type of immune cell, called a resting CD4 cell. Because these cells are inactive, they tend to be unresponsive to drugs.
The few drugs scientists have previously used to rouse the virus in these cells were not specific to H.I.V. and had unwanted side effects.
A group of researchers from Australia, the U.S., and the Netherlands have finally found a way to coax out those virus traces by using mRNA, the same technology that helped create revolutionary vaccines against COVID-19.
They used the particles to deliver two different sets of molecules: Tat, which is adept at switching H.I.V. on, and CRISPR, a tool that can “edit” genes.
The researchers showed that in resting immune cells from people living with H.I.V., the approach coaxed the virus out of dormancy.
“It’s very, very hard to deal with these cells, so I think this really targeting the right population of cells is what makes this paper special,” Dr. Muecksch said.
This has the potential to bring us closer to a cure, since if all HIV is awakened, it can then also be successfully treated.
Two things stand out to me here — and bring me awe.
One is the breathtaking speed at which research has been able to unlock treatment.
The AIDS epidemic officially started almost 45 years ago, in 1981. At the time, people who got AIDS usually died within a few years, and there was no way to prevent HIV positive people from developing AIDS.
The fact that less than half a century later we have medicines that make it possible for people to live a normal life span is simply incredible.
Second is human ingenuity and our commitment to improving this world. These days, it’s easy to read the news and think humanity is mostly heading toward bad things.
While all the conflicts, wars, and hate is still true, it's also amazing to think about all the researchers who are working every day to bring us new treatments and cures to diseases, ultimately helping more people live longer and healthier lives.
I like taking a moment to appreciate these discoveries and the people behind them. Perhaps we can all take a page from their books and see how we can leverage our own talents (even if not for scientific research) to make the world a better place.
Amazing and inspiring!