First there was the preventative gel for HIV developed with the aid of bee venom. Then there was the first infant to be cured of HIV two weeks ago. Now it appears the news has gotten even better. A recent study has shown that 14 people are now believed to be functionally cured of HIV.
A new study in the journal PLOS Pathogens has claimed that 14 people have been cured of the disease after going through combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Though not completely rid of HIV, they have been able to go off the medication while still being able to keep their HIV in check. If not a complete victory, it's still certainly a moral one.
"Our results show that early and prolonged cART may allow some individuals with a rather unfavorable background to achieve long-term infection control and may have important implications in the search for a functional HIV cure," said French researchers from the Institut Pasteur in the study.
70 patients in the study began the cART between 35 days and 10 weeks after becoming infected with HIV. Though 56 of them relapsed as soon as their treatment was interrupted, the 14 now known at the 'Visconti Cohort' realized HIV levels that were so low their body was able to successful stave off progression of the disease.
"There are three benefits to early treatment," says Asier Sáez-Cirión of the Institut Pasteur. "It limits the reservoir of HIV that can persist, limits the diversity of the virus and preserves the immune response to the virus that keeps it in check."
There is a certain percentage of the population known are known as 'super-controllers' who are highly resistant to HIV, but all 14 of the cured patients were not among this group. In fact, it seems as if the opposite reaction actually helped them. Everyone in Visconti's Cohort had an especially strong initial reaction to the disease, leading to their early and uncertain treatment. Though by no means a definitive cure at this point, it appears that combination antiretroviral therapy could be the answer to HIV for a significant portion of the population.
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