Great strides made in the fight against HIV

A study stating that fourteen adults have been functionally cured of HIV was published today, less than two weeks after a two year old girl became the first documented case of a functional cure. The patients were treated with a course of combination antiretroviral treatment (cART) soon after being diagnosed with the virus.

70 patients took part in the study, and all had been diagnosed within 10 weeks of becoming infected with HIV. After taking cART for an average of three years, 14 of the patients were able to stop the drug regimen with no ill effects. The authors of the study outline their findings as stated below:

“We identified 14 HIV patients (post-treatment controllers [PTCs]) whose viremia remained controlled for several years after the interruption of prolonged cART initiated during the primary infection.”

The HIV was not eradicated from the bodies of the patients, but rather went into remission. Years later, none of the functionally cured patients have experienced a reoccurrence of the virus.

French researchers believe that this course of action may be able to cure between five and fifteen percent of patients who are diagnosed in the early stages of HIV. Though this may not sound like a large proportion, it was originally thought that this method would not work at all for adults due to their developed immune systems.

These findings were published just six days after bee venom was found to contain melittin, a toxin capable of killing HIV. HIV is incredibly difficult to destroy due to the fact that it is very skilled at changing it’s outer layer of proteins. This means that our immune systems find it difficult to recognise the virus. HIV also attacks ‘Helper-T’ cells, which are responsible for sending the signals that tell our immune system to create antibodies. When the Helper-T cells are killed, these signals are no longer sent, and our immune systems shut down. This eventually leads to AIDS.

The bee venom is placed inside nanoparticles which are big enough to simply bounce off normal cells in our bodies. HIV, however, is so small that it slides inside the nanoparticles, where it is then killed by the melittin. The toxin works by fusing with the envelope surrounding the virus which is designed to protect it. It then creates pores in the envelope, eventually stripping it off altogether, and leaving the virus vulnerable.

“We are attacking an inherent physical property of HIV.” said researcher Joshua Hood during a press release. “Theoretically, there isn’t any way for the virus to adapt to that. The virus has to have a protective coat, a double-layered membrane that covers the virus.”

Whilst we are still a long way off a universal cure for HIV, the strides taken in recent weeks are monumental. Further research is being conducted using these breakthrough findings, and we can hope for even greater developments in the near future.