What might a functional cure for HIV look like? In a recent study, researchers assumed that HIV reactivation from latency occurs about once per week. They assessed three cure strategies: reducing the HIV reservoir, removing susceptible targets and eliciting immune control. A 1000-fold reservoir reduction would delay viral rebound by 20 years if treatment stopped….
Harvard researchers have published exciting results on a combination approach to tackling latent HIV. In a monkey model of HIV infection, the group combined the innate immune activating compound GS-9620 (a toll-like receptor 7 agonist) with the broadly neutralising antibody PGT121. The combination was given while infected monkeys were on treatment. When treatment stopped, the…
This article was originally published in the Spring 2018 issue of Poslink, the newsletter of Living Positive Victoria. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be part of a clinical trial for a cure for HIV? Although antiretroviral therapy means that people living with HIV (PLHIV) in many countries have similar health outcomes and…
Reducing the persistent stigma and discrimination related to HIV infection drives clinician scientist Jintanat Ananworanich. Her research interests range from HIV infection in children to dissecting the very early stages of HIV infection in adults. We caught up with Dr Ananworanich while she was in Melbourne to deliver a public lecture at the Doherty Institute….
A recent study from researchers in Hong Kong has got the world’s media talking about a functional cure for HIV. A quick search for the terms ‘HIV, functional cure, Hong Kong’ yields a long list of articles and videos from around the world. Twitter has also been going crazy. Read on to find out what the…
A promising study of a combination approach to HIV cure featured at last month’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in the US. The study looked at the impact of a broadly neutralising antibody (bNAb) together with an immune-activating compound in monkeys. Headed by Dan Barouch from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the…
Understanding how HIV cure interventions affect women will move us closer to the goal of an HIV cure for everyone. Women and HIV HIV is a women’s issue. Worldwide, more than half of the 36.7 million people living with HIV are women. That equates to 18.6 million women and girls. Each year, another 1 million…
Researchers have revealed a new way to understand the HIV that stays in the body during therapy. The group from Sydney’s Westmead Institute for Medical Research have developed a technique for detailing HIV at a molecular level. Bonnie Hiener and colleagues, led by Associate Professor Sarah Palmer, published the study in the journal Cell Reports…
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Sharon Lewin, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Thomas Aagaard Rasmussen, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity Antiretroviral therapy has revolutionised the lives of people living with HIV. In many countries, the life expectancy for someone living with…
I. Introduction In recent years, a global movement has arisen towards finding a cure for HIV. While we remain many years away from a cure that could be offered to the almost 37 million people living with HIV throughout the world, researchers are exploring a number of approaches that might one day bring an end…
