According to foreign media reports, a research paper published in Nature Communications this month said that a team of scientists from UCLA improved a "kick and kill" for latent HIV, "tricking" HIV out of infected cells and exposing them to the NK Nature Killer Cell. It is reported that the study conducted experiments on a total of 10 mice infected with HIV. The results of the study show that about 40% of HIV is completely eradicated. The results of the experimental study also show that a cure for AIDS is possible.
Previous treatment methods "treat the symptoms but not the root causes"
AIDS is a very harmful infectious disease caused by infection with the human virus (HIV). HIV is a virus that attacks and progressively destroys the body's immune system. It can make the human body lose immune function, thereby infecting various diseases, and the case fatality rate is high.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is currently one of the main methods of treating AIDS, and although it can effectively suppress AIDS, it cannot cure AIDS
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is currently one of the main treatments for AIDS. This treatment prevents HIV replication, effectively reducing the HIV load in patients, even so low that it cannot be detected by the immune system. However, if it is not detected, it does not mean that the virus has completely disappeared. Conversely, if the virus remains latent in the infected cells, once treatment is stopped, the virus replicates again in large quantities and continues to spread. Although antiretroviral therapy is effective in suppressing AIDS, it does not cure AIDS.
So scientists began exploring another way to deal with AIDS— the "kick and kill method." The treatment uses the injection of vorinostat, a drug that induces the latent HIV virus to be transcribed and replicated, so that the latent virus is activated and recognized by the immune system. Drugs then enhance the activity of T cells in their own bodies, identifying and killing those cells that store latent viruses.
AIDS may be completely cured
In 2017, researchers used an incubation reversal agent called SUW133 to activate the latent HIV virus in infected mice. In that study, about 25 percent of HIV-infected cells died within 24 hours.
The study found that the simultaneous use of natural killer cells and the incubation period reverser SUW133 can improve the efficiency of "killing" HIV-infected cells
In the latest study, in addition to injecting the incubation reverser SUW133 to activate the latent HIV virus in infected mice, the researchers also injected natural killer cells into infected mice to improve efficiency. The results showed that this two-pronged approach was better than activating HIV cells with agents alone or using natural killer cells alone.
The study also found that injecting natural killer cells into HIV-infected mice also delayed viral rebound after antiretroviral therapy was interrupted. In addition, a kick-kill strategy consisting of protein kinase C modulators, incubation reverser SUW133, and external natural killer cells can completely eliminate a part of the viral reservoir of HIV-infected mice. This finding also demonstrates that externally assisted interventions can completely eliminate HIV reservoirs, leading to a complete cure for AIDS.
Lead author joslin King of the study said: "These findings demonstrate the possibility of completely eliminating hive from the human body, a research conundrum that has been insurmountable for years. He added that these findings provide a new breakthrough point and theoretical basis for a "complete cure for AIDS."
It is reported that the next goal of the research team is to eliminate 100% of the HIV virus in infected mice, and then will do experiments in primates, with the ultimate goal of testing in humans.
If the study proves safe and effective in human trials, this approach could eliminate the need for AIDS patients to rely on lifelong antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, and would also make a complete cure for AIDS possible.
Nearly 40 years after the first case of AIDS was reported globally in 1981, HIV is still endemic in human society and has remained a major threat to human health. The United Nations estimates that there are currently about 38 million people living with HIV worldwide.
Red Star News reporter Wang Yalin intern reporter Li Jinrui
Edited by Guo Yu
(Download Red Star News, there are prizes for the newspaper!) ）