The HIV trap

New Therapy Lures HIV Out and Kills It

Vladimir Guillen, Naked Science

In a study published in the journal EBioMedicine (Kristoff et al., Type 1-programmed dendritic cells drive antigen-specific latency reversal and immune elimination of persistent HIV-1), a team from the University of Pittsburgh describes in detail how they managed to develop an immunotherapy called MDC1. This procedure targets HIV and cytomegalovirus, which infects 95 percent of people with HIV.

"It's like a Swiss knife from immunotherapy," said researcher Robbie Meillard.

HIV is a very tricky virus. He can hide in the immune cells of a person who takes antiretroviral drugs daily and wait for him to stop therapy in order to return with renewed vigor. In this case, people continue to take antiretroviral drugs throughout their lives, simultaneously experiencing all the side effects associated with them.

However, now researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have developed HIV immunotherapy, which not only lures the virus out of its lair, but also destroys it. Scientists believe that this is the first step towards creating an HIV vaccine.

 "The immune system spends a lot of time tracking cytomegalovirus; in some people, one out of every five T cells refers directly to this virus," says Charles Rinaldo. – This made us think: maybe those cells that directly fight cytomegalovirus also make up a large part of the hidden reservoir of HIV? So we have developed immunotherapy not only to fight HIV, but also to activate T-helpers specific to cytomegalovirus."

To conduct the experiment, the team needed the blood of HIV patients – and quite a lot – taking antiretroviral drugs. More than 20 people took part in the tests.

The scientists also isolated immune cells known as dendritic cells, which Meillard calls the quarterbacks of the immune system: "They pass the ball and dictate the game plan, telling other immune cells where to go and what to fight."

This plan worked, and MDC1 managed to lure the hidden HIV into infected blood, and then kill it.

The scientists plan to receive funding for human clinical trials. They also hope that one day they will be able to create a vaccine that will allow HIV-infected people to stop taking daily medications.

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