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Hope As Cancer Drug Shows Promise In Flushing Out HIV by Nobody: 8:14am On Aug 01, 2015 |
Highly active antiretroviral therapy
(HAART) has been a game changer in the
battle against HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS.
It suppresses the deadly virus to virtually
undetectable levels in the blood, so those
being treated for HIV can live almost
symptom-free for as long as they take the
drugs.
However, if a patient stops therapy, there
are silent reservoirs of HIV — undetected
by the immune system — that spring to life
and reignite the virus.
The latest avenue of research involves
discovering drugs that flush out this silent
reservoir, so the virus can be recognized
and killed by the immune system.
One drug that shows particular promise at
unmasking the virus, potentially offering a
cure, is a compound called PEP005, which
is used to treat precancerous skin lesions.
Satya Danekar, chair of medical
microbiology and immunology at the
University of California-Davis, is leading
research into PEP005.
“You flush the virus out from those
latently infected cells and pull them out,"
Danekar said. "And second, you have to
depend on the ability of the immune
system to now come and say, 'Whoa,
there’s the infected cell,' and come and kill
it.”
She called the strategy to awaken silent HIV
“shock and kill.” Researchers report their
findings in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
So far, PEP005 has been shown effective in
awakening latent reservoirs of the AIDS
virus in cells from infected individuals.
Dandekar said PEP005 would be given to
patients at the same time they are on
HAART to suppress active virus.
The compound has also been shown to
protect other immune cells from becoming
infected with HIV.
Dandekar said the success of HAART is that
many HIV patients are now growing old,
but it’s not known how well seniors are
able to tolerate the toxicity and side effects
of antiretroviral drugs.
In addition, Dandekar noted that
combination therapy is a lifelong
commitment, not only for patients but for
countries that provide HAART to their
citizens. She said that could be a hardship
for many countries.
“You have all these people — you have to
keep treating them, following, monitoring,"
she said. "So, again, human life and
treatment is important. But there is this
other side effect.”
Dandekar believes a compound like PEP005
that awakens and kills the AIDS virus has
the potential to cure the disease.
Because it’s already approved by regulators
for the treatment of skin conditions, the
HIV activation agent could be used in
human clinical trials very soon.
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Re: Hope As Cancer Drug Shows Promise In Flushing Out HIV by Yehman(m): 8:15am On Aug 01, 2015 |
K |
Re: Hope As Cancer Drug Shows Promise In Flushing Out HIV by bist: 9:00am On Aug 01, 2015 |
Nice! |
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