Immunotherapy used to treat various cancers seems to prevent HIV from hiding permanently inside immune system cells, a finding that may eventually pave the way for a complete cure for the infection.
Today’s antiviral drugs inhibit proliferation and allow carriers to live normal lives without AIDS symptoms. But they can not completely eradicate the virus, which can hide in the CD4 + cells of the immune system and remain dormant until it has a chance to be activated.
MSD (Merck in the USA) Pemprolizumab is a monoclonal antibody that blocks the PD-1 protein, which is used by cancer cells to prevent the immune system from attacking.
The same protein is found in CD4 + cells that are infected with HIV. According to a new study published in Science Translational Medicine, entitled “Pembrolizumab induces HIV latency reversal in people living with HIV and cancer on antiretroviral therapy” (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abl3836) Pemprolizumab reverses the latent state of the virus and forces it to reproduce in CD4 + cells. Potentially, virus activation could allow the immune system to recognize and destroy infected cells.
The study was performed on 32 cancer patients who also had HIV and were receiving antiviral therapy. Following treatment, the virus RNA was detected in the CD4 + cells and plasma of the patients, indicating that the latent virus had been activated.
Research will continue in the hope that the monoclonal antibody will allow the immune system to kill HIV-infected cells as it kills cancer.
Meanwhile, Excision Biotherapeutics is preparing to begin clinical trials of a treatment based on the revolutionary CRISPR technique that has given encouraging results in eradicating HIV from mice.
