HIV infection stopped in its tracks

• Autores: Andy Coghlan
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3114, 2017, pág. 8
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Five people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are currently free of detectable virus--and daily drugs--thanks to a new vaccine-based therapy. Three years ago, Beatriz Mothe of the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, and her colleagues started a trial in which 24 people recently diagnosed with HIV were given two vaccines developed by Tomas Hanke and his colleagues at the University of Oxford. They were also given ART, then monitored to see whether the vaccines induced a strong immune response. This year, 15 of them each received a booster dose of one of the vaccines, followed by three doses of romidepsin--a cancer drug that has shown potential for flushing HIV out of hiding. Finally, each person received another vaccine booster, and then stopped taking ART. In 10 of the participants, the virus rapidly bounced back, forcing them to return to ART. But five of the participants no longer needed to take the drugs because their immune systems could suppress the virus unaided.