New HIV Therapy Could Completely Eliminate the Virus - A Cure on the Horizon?

A team of researchers comprised of Canadian and American scientists believe they have discovered a way to eradicate HIV from the body.

There have been "promising" potential vaccines for HIV/AIDS over the years, all of which failed near the end of the human trial phase.

A new study shows a completely different approach to HIV therapy, not concentrating on developing vaccines, but actually eliminating the virus from the body altogether.

Findings from the study were published by Nature Medicine on June 21.

The research team has been focusing on finding the reason why antiretroviral drugs suppress the virus, but do not completely rid the body of it.

Since the 90s when antiretroviral drugs were beginning to be used by doctors to fight HIV, they were able to turn what was once a death sentence into a chronic illness.  The medications only diminished the disease, but never eliminated it.  Patients were doomed to take medication the rest of their lives.

"The minute the patient stops taking the therapy the virus is reborn," said Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy, associate professor of hematology at McGill University in Montreal.  "Then, the immune system is destroyed and the patient becomes sick again.

Patients become reinfected because HIV feeds from a resevoir of the virus contained within a cell.  Until now, we did not know why the resevoir was unaffected by antiretroviral therapy.

Researchers discovered that the HIV virus in the resevoir is unlike the typical virus.  It remains dormant while viruses treated by HIV drugs divide.  According to the researchers, if the cell lives, the virus lives.  Think of the resevoir as a feeding tube for the virus.  If the resevoir is treated with targeted chemotherapy, the virus is killed, thus removing the source of regeneration.  Without a "home-base" where the virus can hide, new copies of the virus can not be made.

The new treatment would be a combination of antiretroviral drugs and targeted chemotherapy:  chemo to kill the resevoir source and antiretrovirals to kill the virus in duplicated cells.

In theory, the findings of the study sound viable, and the researchers just may have made the next big breakthrough in unlocking the mysteries of the HIV virus.

Researchers warned that some patients do not respond to antiretroviral therapy.  Those patients may not likely see the same results as patients who do respond to the current HIV drugs.

Reportedly, $153 million has been invested in the study since the findings were published on June 21, which includes $60 million from the State of Florida and nearly $53 million matched by the city of Port St. Lucie where the study is based.

According to Calgary Herald, a study will begin in September to test the findings of the research.  If targeted chemotherapy eliminates the HIV, researchers say the feasibility of the treatment will be determined over the next two to three years, with medication becoming available a few years after that.