An anonymous British man with HIV undergoing a pioneering
treatment to cure him of the disease has shown “remarkable” progress. Scientists
treating the 44-year-old patient are now hopeful of a breakthrough in what has
been described as “one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV”.
Results showed the man’s most recent blood test showed no
detectable HIV was present. The man, who has remained anonymous, is the first
of 50 people to complete a trial using the two-stage attack on the deadly
virus.
The research is being carried out by a collaboration of five
of Britain’s top universities organised by the National Health Service.
Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute
for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure, told the
Sunday Times: “This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for
HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge
challenge and it’s still early days but the progress has been remarkable.”
The trial patient told the newspaper that recent blood tests
showed no detectable HIV virus was present, although it was too early to
confirm that the treatment had worked.
The new therapy aims to overcome a major barrier to clearing
the virus from a sufferer’s body that has challenged researchers for decades.
Current methods using antiretroviral therapies (Art) fall
short of ridding patients of HIV, as the virus can hide out of the drugs’ reach
in the immune system’s T-cells.
By sheltering in dormant T-cells the virus can later take
over its host and use it to produce thousands of copies of itself, should Art
no longer work.
The research by Oxford and Cambridge universities, Imperial
College London, University College London, and King’s College London, is testing
a “kick and kill” technique to first expose, then destroy the virus.
First a vaccine helps the body find infected T-cells. This
is then followed by a course of the drug Vorinostat that awakens the dormant
T-cells, which then begin producing HIV proteins that act as a homing beacon to
the immune system.
Imperial College London consultant physician Professor Sarah
Fidler said the treatment worked in the laboratory and there was “good
evidence” it will work in patients.
However she added: “We must stress we are still a long way
from any actual therapy.”
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
1 Comments
Good one, hope dis reaches naija?
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