HIV : Britain Scientists on Brink of HIV Cure
Photo Credits: C. Goldsmith
The world could be a step closer to the elusive HIV cure. Results of the first person to complete the trials of a new treatment designed by a team of scientists and doctors from five of UK’s best universities showed a lot of promise. In an interview with The Sunday Times, it was revealed that the virus is undetectable from the 44-year-old man’s blood: “It would be great if a cure has happened. My last blood test was a couple of weeks ago and there is no detectable virus.”
Further, the clinical trial participant added, “I took part in the trial to help others as well as myself. It would be a massive achievement if, after all these years, something is found to cure people of this disease. The fact that I was a part of that would be incredible.”
Admittedly the confirmation that he is completely and permanently cured takes months as the patient was also taking antiretroviral therapy (Art). Art is known to temporarily clear the cells from the virus only for it to come back days or weeks after. But this latest treatment is different from ART in the sense that it destroys HIV including the dormant ones. Professor Sarah Fidler, a consultant physician at Imperial College London, confirmed: “This therapy is specifically designed to clear the body of all HIV viruses, including dormant ones.”
“It has worked in the laboratory and there is good evidence it will work in humans too but we must stress we are still a long way from any actual therapy.
“We will continue with medical tests for the next five years and at the moment we are not recommending stopping Art but in the future depending on the test results we may explore this,” Professor Fidler concluded.
On a more optimistic note, Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure was quoted saying, “This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days but the progress has been remarkable.” Samuels underscored the importance of this study: “In the UK there are around a hundred thousand people who live with HIV, around 17 per cent of whom do not know they have the disease, and 37 million are infected worldwide.”
The five universities involved in the development of the treatment included Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London, and King’s College London.
Hmmm! IF, And That’s A BIG, BIG “IF” The British Scientists Find “The Cure” Only Thing The Big Pharma Companies’ Gonna Do Is Either Set The Price So Damn High That Only The 1% Can Afford It, Or Just “Sweep It Under The Rug” And Fabricate A Big White Lie About The Drug And Tell Us To Forget About It. Much Love To The HIV Poz Peeps And I Hope I’m Wrong About It, (At The Same Time I Hope Like Hell They Successfully Find The Cure And Totally Eradicate HIV/AIDS) But I Wouldn’t Get My Hopes Up Thanks To Our ‘GREAT’ American Government And Their Deep Seated Hate For The Gay Community.
You believe this, I have a bridge I’ll sell ya…cheap! There’s NO credible documentation of any clinical trial in the UK regarding a “cure” for HIV-1.
You really need to crediting these blog posts as your own. Clearly, all you’re doing is copying and pasting existing articles.
It’s one thing if you’re talking about sex because that’s all you ever do –fluff and stupid fashion. Oh and let’s not forget using The blog to serve your own personal agenda (e.g. “Music career””)
Leave the serious medical news to the professionals.
I know you won’t post this (because it’s true)! Believe it if you’re the only one reading it, that’s good enough for me and message has been received.
Stick to your favorite dildo… and fisting or whatever.
Ahaha I will definitely post it so that people see what you wrote and see how impolite you are!
Oooh! Dave’s into FF? Well, now!
ahahaha Not quite, I have a hard time to take a dick so imagine an arm, ouf!
Someone needs to look up the definition of ‘On the brink”.
A cure would be good news but I doubt if he has one it will ever be readily available or even remotely affordable or covered by insurance. Doctors/Hospitals/Big Pharma make a lot more money treating symptoms and suppressing diseases than to actually cure them. Same with cancer. If he does come up with a cure I’m sure he will be given hush money or mysteriously pass away like the one man who claimed to have a working cure then suddenly died.
Why WOULDN’T an insurance company want to pay for the “cure” think of all the money they would save on the patient in the form of unneeded antivirals and blood test – to say nothing of what the cost are if the patient becomes sick and is hospitalized. Why do you think most cover PReP today?
This is ” new ” news?? Heard this crap before…. Don’t get your hopes up just yet …
Yet another article claiming the cure for HIV is near or almost created. Next please! POF!
TREATMENT NEWS
U.K. Papers Erroneously Report, Yet Again, That an HIV Cure Is Near
The misreported news, which originated in The Sunday Times, concerns a “kick-and-kill” cure attempt that still requires years of follow-up.
October 3, 2016 • By Benjamin Ryan
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British journalists have done it again. The United Kingdom’s Sunday Times and The Telegraph have each published erroneous, hyperbolic articles claiming that a cure for HIV is around the corner. The Telegraph in particular has developed quite a history of jumping the gun on this subject, with a notable blunder in 2013 and another in April 2016.
According to aidsmap, the reports, which originated in The Sunday Times, concern one HIV-positive man who is participating in a study of a “kick-and-kill” strategy for reducing the size of the viral reservoir and possibly eradicating the virus entirely.
Such an HIV cure attempt involves using one means of flushing HIV from its hiding places in the viral reservoir and another technique for priming the immune system to kill off infected cells.
While The Sunday Times states that the British researchers are on the “brink of a cure,” their research is actually only in its early stages.
The participant in question had received the kick-and-kill treatment but is still taking antiretroviral (ARV) medications. Researchers cannot know whether his virus will rebound unless he discontinues his ARVs. Furthermore, he and all the other trial participants will require years of follow-up before the scientists could claim success in curing them.
Even if any of the participants are cured, this cure method may not be broadly applicable, since it is being tested only among those recently infected with the virus, who may have a better shot at a cure than those infected longer.
The study, known as Research in Viral Eradication of HIV Reservoirs, or RIVER, aims to recruit 52 people who contracted the virus during the previous six months. About 15 percent of the VISCONTI cohort in France have remained in viral remission after starting an aggressive antiretroviral (ARV) treatment regimen that early in the course of their infection and then later going off their HIV medications.
In theory, the viral reservoir has not fully developed within the first six months of HIV infection, which allows a greater chance for eradication, since it is the reservoir that complicates cure attempts.
Participants in the RIVER study will take 22 weeks of a four-ARV combination regimen including Isentress (raltegravir). Then they will be randomly assigned to stay on that regimen alone or receive an additional vaccination meant to improve their immune system’s ability to go after cells harboring HIV. Over a four-week period, the latter group will also receive 10 doses of the HDAC inhibitor vorinostat, meant to flush the virus from cells that make up the reservoir.
The researchers will measure levels of HIV DNA in the participants 40 and 42 weeks after they start treatment. They intend to conduct medical tests on the participants for the next five years. At this time, they are not recommending that any participants stop taking ARVs. Even if participants discontinue their HIV treatment and don’t see the virus rebound, they may not be considered definitively cured until considerable time has passed without incident.
As seen most famously in the case of the Mississippi Baby, HIV can appear vanquished, with an individual off treatment but not apparently experiencing viral replication, only to rebound months or years down the road.
The RIVER study will likely not release any results until the first half of 2018.
To read the aidsmap article, click here.
To read the Sunday Times article, click here.
To read the Telegraph article, click here.
To read a 2015 POZ feature about maintaining realistic expectations about HIV cure research, click here.
FROM POZ.COM
I thought this was good news until I read the responses. Hard to believe that the government would deny a cure for hiv so that people can keep their jobs and pharmaceutical companies can continue to charge outrageous prices for hiv meds. To think the government would allow people to continue to take strong hiv meds not know what long term effect it will have on their bodies. Why shouldn’t we also think that cancer and diabetes can be cured too. I don’t know anyone with hiv but I’m going to think positive and pray our government do the right thing.