'all of a sudden it was working' - a step closer to a cure for HIV
June 5, 2025 7:51 AM Subscribe
HIV's ability to conceal itself inside certain white blood cells means there is a reservoir of the virus in the body, capable of reactivation, that neither the immune system nor drugs can tackle. Now researchers in Melbourne have demonstrated a way to make the virus visible, paving the way to fully clear it from the body. “We were overwhelmed by how [much of a] night and day difference it was – from not working before, and then all of a sudden it was working. And all of us were just sitting gasping like, ‘wow’.” Breakthrough in search for HIV cure leaves researchers ‘overwhelmed’, The Guardian.
It is based on mRNA technology
Hope this doesn't mean a politically compromised Health and Humans Services department keeps this great thing away from US Americans.
posted by subdee at 8:00 AM on June 5 [9 favorites]
Hope this doesn't mean a politically compromised Health and Humans Services department keeps this great thing away from US Americans.
posted by subdee at 8:00 AM on June 5 [9 favorites]
This would be a great thing. Hope it works.
(Also not everyone who gets HIV is gay btw)
posted by Windopaene at 8:02 AM on June 5 [13 favorites]
(Also not everyone who gets HIV is gay btw)
posted by Windopaene at 8:02 AM on June 5 [13 favorites]
Maybe the way to get the public to embrace mRNA techniques is to invent some cosmetic uses for it.
posted by Western Infidels at 8:02 AM on June 5 [6 favorites]
posted by Western Infidels at 8:02 AM on June 5 [6 favorites]
Note: "The study is laboratory based and was carried out in cells donated by HIV patients."
This is relevant because other recent mRNA-based HIV vaccine candidates have run into a problem with causing chronic hives in a non-trivial percentage of patients:
Hopefully this approach doesn't have that problem!
posted by jedicus at 8:07 AM on June 5 [4 favorites]
This is relevant because other recent mRNA-based HIV vaccine candidates have run into a problem with causing chronic hives in a non-trivial percentage of patients:
In two small clinical trials, 7 to 18 percent of participants developed rashes and other skin reactions after getting the shots—including multiple cases of chronic hives that troubled volunteers for months after they were immunized. ... The rashes aren’t life-threatening; they’re also readily treatable. Still, they can be debilitating and distressing.That's a problem that would likely heavily interfere with uptake, especially in areas where receiving follow-up care would be difficult.
Hopefully this approach doesn't have that problem!
posted by jedicus at 8:07 AM on June 5 [4 favorites]
One thing I don't quite understand is what the second step would be. This approach activates the virus, essentially stripping it of its hiding place...and...then what?
posted by mittens at 8:12 AM on June 5
posted by mittens at 8:12 AM on June 5
I work in an HIV outpatient clinic (as a social worker, not a medical professional). Sent a message to one of them to see if he's got any thoughts and will report back.
Sounds promising but we've been burned so many times in the past by therapies that don't pan out. Fucking HIV.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:14 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]
Sounds promising but we've been burned so many times in the past by therapies that don't pan out. Fucking HIV.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:14 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]
boo, he just says "sounds promising" but he hasn't looked at it.
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:15 AM on June 5
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:15 AM on June 5
As the article acknowledges, lots of things that work in the lab don't work in animals, and a lot of things that work in animals don't work in humans. On the other hand, working in the lab is a necessary precedent to working in humans.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:44 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:44 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]
Meanwhile, the current US presidential administration is attempting to claw back funding for PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a GWB-era program that is estimated to have saved 26 million lives. (This even though Rubio asserted in April that this would not happen.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:54 AM on June 5 [5 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:54 AM on June 5 [5 favorites]
One thing I don't quite understand is what the second step would be. This approach activates the virus, essentially stripping it of its hiding place...and...then what?
Presumably, once visible, some combination of immune response and drugs can target the virus.
Fundamentally new modes of attacking the problem are great - even if the initial version can't be used in humans, you get a new batch of 'low hanging fruit' for trying to design a version that does.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:26 AM on June 5 [3 favorites]
Presumably, once visible, some combination of immune response and drugs can target the virus.
Fundamentally new modes of attacking the problem are great - even if the initial version can't be used in humans, you get a new batch of 'low hanging fruit' for trying to design a version that does.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:26 AM on June 5 [3 favorites]
This is so exciting. I actually expected a lot more innovation with MRNA technology than we have seen so far - I know there were immediate hopes for cures for HIV, malaria, and other persistent viral illness.
posted by latkes at 10:58 AM on June 5
posted by latkes at 10:58 AM on June 5
I'm a doctor
mittens:"one thing I don't quite understand is what the second step would be. This approach activates the virus, essentially stripping it of its hiding place...and...then what?"
Second step #1 stems from having invented a way to get mRNA into the primary immune cell (ie, the CD4+ T lymphocyte) of HIV infection. The Aussies have proved a concept and created a scientific and methodological template for developing ways to get mRNA into cells other than CD4+.
HIV spreads to and leaves a DNA "reservoir" in other immune cells like monocytes and macrophages. It also resides in the lymph nodes, and in a special type of cell found throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. (Tons more cells get HIV, but I'm not an infectious disease specialist and have no idea what they are.) Waaaaaay down the road--think decades not years--we might have cell-specific HIV treatments
Second step #2: Latent HIV DNA causes huge problems for HIV treatment. First, its immune to antiretroviral drugs, which prevent HIV from replicating and spreading to healthy cells. Second, countless factors--from stress and hormone fluctuations to exposure to toxins or irradiation--can activate latent HIV DNA, such that we need to develop a one-size-fits-all infected cells approach (read: by injecting them mRNA before they go from DNA dormant to active) that works independent of the factor that triggered renewed DNA replication
posted by BadgerDoctor at 1:52 PM on June 5 [6 favorites]
mittens:"one thing I don't quite understand is what the second step would be. This approach activates the virus, essentially stripping it of its hiding place...and...then what?"
Second step #1 stems from having invented a way to get mRNA into the primary immune cell (ie, the CD4+ T lymphocyte) of HIV infection. The Aussies have proved a concept and created a scientific and methodological template for developing ways to get mRNA into cells other than CD4+.
HIV spreads to and leaves a DNA "reservoir" in other immune cells like monocytes and macrophages. It also resides in the lymph nodes, and in a special type of cell found throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. (Tons more cells get HIV, but I'm not an infectious disease specialist and have no idea what they are.) Waaaaaay down the road--think decades not years--we might have cell-specific HIV treatments
Second step #2: Latent HIV DNA causes huge problems for HIV treatment. First, its immune to antiretroviral drugs, which prevent HIV from replicating and spreading to healthy cells. Second, countless factors--from stress and hormone fluctuations to exposure to toxins or irradiation--can activate latent HIV DNA, such that we need to develop a one-size-fits-all infected cells approach (read: by injecting them mRNA before they go from DNA dormant to active) that works independent of the factor that triggered renewed DNA replication
posted by BadgerDoctor at 1:52 PM on June 5 [6 favorites]
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posted by subdee at 7:58 AM on June 5