Strategy to redirect HIV infection

New results from studies in Belgium describe a promising strategy to reduce HIV infection and push the remaining virus into spots where it can’t easily come back out. The research from the laboratory of Professor Zeger Debyser at KU Leuven describes work in laboratory models using LEDGINs, small molecules that interfere with how HIV integrates into host genes. These molecules block the normal interactions that occur between HIV and the host cell at the very beginning of an HIV infection, preventing many cells from becoming infected. The studies show that some cells do still become infected after treatment with LEDGINs, but the places where the virus joins the host genes are different from usual. Instead of joining in areas where the virus is easily able to replicate and produce new virus, the virus is forced into areas where there is not much going on, and where it is hard for the virus to multiply and continue the cycle of infection. For people living with HIV, this might provide an opportunity to suspend antiretroviral treatment, with the virus effectively blocked from replicating.

LEDGINs themselves are not new, but these results show what happens to the HIV that does manage to infect cells when they have been treated with LEDGINs. The Belgian researchers are now hoping to continue the work into human trials. Professor Debyser states “this discovery paves the way for new clinical studies with LEDGINs,” and then explains “We don’t know whether this approach will lead to a final cure for HIV, but even a scenario that allows patients to stop their medication for a while is an important step in the right direction”.

While the results are promising, the work is at a very early stage, with all of the published experiments done in cell lines, and some in cells from uninfected people. The strategy has not yet been tried in animal models or in people living with HIV.

Read the original study here.

Find the university press release here.

HIV latency LEDGINs reservoir