HIV: A New Hope for Treatment

There’s may be more hope on the horizon in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Researchers at Scripps Research Institute in California say they’ve found a way to block the virus from infecting T-Cells (immunity cells) in monkeys, giving cells a fighting chance to prevent the initial infection.

“Stopping the virus from entering T-Cells to produce more HIV virus…that’s the critical step,” said Ambreen Khalil, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Staten Island University Hospital. “Once a T-Cell is infected, it becomes a ‘factory’ from which more HIV is produced, compounding the infection in the patient which, over time, may progress into AIDS. This gene therapy hopes to fortify them from infection.”

According to the World Health Organization, more than 35 million people globally are infected with HIV with 2.1 million cases diagnosed in 2013. Dr. Khalil is hopeful this treatment may reduce those numbers and provide a new therapy for patients living with the disease.

“Potentially, this therapy can reduce the need for AZT and HIV ‘cocktail’ medications which have their own complications of nausea and headaches and more serious side effects such as lactic acidosis, bone marrow suppression and liver abnormalities,” Dr. Khalil said. “If you shut down the T-Cell ‘factories,’ you can keep the virus levels in-check, decreasing the need for these drugs or even totally eliminating the need for them.”

Dr. Khalil added that although older anti-retroviral medications are being used less frequently and new, once-daily drugs are available, no medications are without side effects. She stated that compliance is another issue with these medications that are generally required for a person’s lifetime.

The team at Scripps is looking to begin human trials in HIV patients who have difficulties with traditional therapies within the year.