Wake up HIV

While anti-AIDS drugs such as, antiretroviral therapy, are effective at suppressing HIV in people but these drugs do not get rid of the virus in the body. The patient is unfortunately still infected. If a patient with HIV stops taking their antiretroviral medication then the virus reemerges, replicates, and weakens the immune system. Using animal models, scientists from UCLA, Stanford, and the NIH may have developed a way to eliminate the “reservoirs” in which HIV hides.  They call this technique “kick and kill”, which is where a particle agent is sent into the body to wake up the dormant virus so that it either begins replicating to “kick" the immune system or the virus itself to kill cells with HIV.

To give more information about the study: HIV infected mice were given antiretroviral drugs and then given SUW133, a synthetic compound (developed at Stanford) that activated the dormant virus. It was found that 25% of the previously dormant HIV cells that were woken up died within 24 hours.  Matthew Marsen, assistant professor of medicine at UCLA, believes that “With further development, the technique could lower the viral reservoir enough for people with HIV to be able to discontinue their anti-viral therapy.” With that said, this has many positive future implications. With more significant findings and human studies, using a less toxic version of SUW133, and a higher effectiveness rate, this molecule could potentially improve the quality of life for HIV patients.

-Jessica Ngo

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171005141836.htm