A listing of clinical trials and observational studies related to the research effort to cure HIV infection, mainly derived from the clinicaltrials.gov online registry. Click the trial registry identifier numbers for a link to the full clinicaltrials.gov entry containing detailed information on the trial design, enrollment criteria, principal investigators and location(s). It’s important to appreciate…
An Australian research team has found that disulfiram, a long-established and safe drug used primarily as a treatment for alcohol dependency (and well-known under its brand name Antabuse) can ‘wake up’ quiescent HIV-infected ‘reservoir’ cells and thus used as the first stage of a hypothetical cure for HIV. The researchers found that doses of disulfiram…
Researchers are one step closer to finding an effective vaccine against HIV thanks to a new approach to systematically understanding the immune response to the virus. The technique, termed ‘Systems Serology’, was developed by University of Melbourne researcher, Dr Amy Chung, from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) in conjunction with…
Australian researchers have joined a worldwide $30-million initiative to accelerate the search for an effective HIV vaccine. Funded by the European Commission, the European AIDS Vaccine Initiative brings together scientific collaborators from across Europe, Australia, Canada and the US. Professors David Cooper, Anthony Kelleher and Miles Davenport from the Kirby Institute in Sydney alongside Professors Damian Purcell…
Only four individuals out of nearly 5000 people receiving care at US military health facilities were found to exhibit immune control of HIV after starting antiretroviral therapy (ART), achieving viral suppression and interrupting treatment, according to a presentation at IDWeek 2015 last month in San Diego. A recently published related study identified several biomarkers that…
The world’s first clinical trial which aims to cure five HIV patients within three years using transplants of blood from umbilical cords is set to start in Spain. The project seeks to be the world’s first clinical trial of its kind by recreating the success of Timothy Ray Brown – the only living person ever…
The recent case of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, who relapsed nine months after “clearing” her Ebola infection, has raised concerns that the virus could cause relapsing disease in other survivors. Ebola’s clever trick — to lie dormant inside a cell or to hide in a particular organ — is not unfamiliar. Lots of viruses can…
Researchers are starting to unravel the secrets of a virus that not only doesn’t make you sick, but can help you fight off other diseases. Viviane Richter explains. We’ve all heard of friendly bacteria, but a friendly virus? Called the pegivirus, catching it doesn’t make you sick. Instead, it can help the immune system to keep…
A team of researchers found that a substance in bananas may be able to fight off various viral illnesses like flu and AIDS. In their study, published in the journal Cell, researchers detailed a protein called lectin that is found in the yellow fruit. In 2010, banana lectin was proven to be effective in fighting…
The only functional treatment for HIV, antiretrovirals keep the amount of HIV in the body at a low level. They treat — but don’t cure — HIV by preventing its growth. The reason antiretrovirals don’t completely clear HIV from the body is because the virus injects its genetic material into white blood cells, allowing it to…
This beautiful photographic essay was compiled by The Alfred in Melbourne, and all credit for this article goes to their amazing teams and the people they care for. This article is shared with permission of The Alfred.
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Working together with researchers and clinicians at The Alfred, members of the community of people living with HIV in Victoria have been integral to progressing ...
