History
is about to be made as a British man could become the first person in the world
to be cured of HIV using a new
therapy designed by a team of scientists from five UK universities.
The
44-year-old is one of 50 people currently receiving a treatment which targets
the disease even in its dormant state, reported by the Telegraph.
Scientists
told The Sunday Times that
presently the virus is completely undetectable in the man’s blood, although
that could be a result of regular drugs. However if the dormant
cells are also cleared out it could represent the first complete cure.
“This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for
HIV,” said Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for Health
Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure.
“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 is being undertaken
by researchers from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College
London, University College London and King’s College London.
HIV is so difficult to treat because it targets the immune system,
splicing itself into the DNA of T-cells so that they not only ignore the
disease, but turn into viral factories which reproduce the virus.
Current treatments, called anti-retroviral therapies (Art), target
that process but they cannot spot dormant infected T-cells.
The new therapy works in two stages. Firstly, a vaccine helps the
body recognise the HIV-infected cells so it can clear them out. Secondly, a new
drug called Vorinostat activates the dormant T-cells so they can be spotted by
the immune system.
More than 100,000 people in Britain are living with HIV, around 17%
of whom do not know they have the disease and 37 million are infected
worldwide.
The first unidentified patient, a social care worker in London,
said: “It would be great if a cure has happened. My last blood test was a
couple of weeks ago and there is no detectable virus.
“I took part in the trial to help others as well as
myself. It would be a massive achievement if, after all these years,
something is found to cure people of this disease. The fact that I was a part
of that would be incredible.”
Professor Sarah Fidler, a consultant physician at Imperial College
London, added: “This therapy is specifically designed to clear the body of all
HIV viruses, including dormant ones.
“It has worked in the laboratory and there is good evidence it
will work in humans too, but we must stress we are still a long way from any
actual therapy.
“We will continue with medical tests for the next five years and
at the moment we are not recommending stopping Art but in the
future depending on the test results we may explore this.”
Only one person has ever been cured of HIV. He is Timothy Brown also
known as the ‘second’ Berlin Patient, who received a stem cell transplant from
a patient with natural immunity to HIV in 2008.
Ian Green, chief executive of
the Terrence Higgins Trust, the Aids charity, said: “There is still no cure for
HIV and we welcome this ambitious study which looks to eradicate the virus
completely from the bodies of people living with HIV, instead of
suppressing it.”
Source:
The Telegraph
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