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Reservoir cells – could there be a cure for HIV/AIDS one day?

While hope of developing a vaccine against the HIV/AIDS virus is waning, during the last two or three years a new way forward has emerged: the possibility of a cure. Is this just a dream? Not anymore it would seem as many researchers meeting at the 18th International AIDS Society Conference in Vienna were able to demonstrate genuine advances in this area. These relate essentially to destroying the virus’s reservoir cells.

If research conducted on HIV/AIDS reservoir cells is successful, people will no longer be seropositive. They will be able to stop their tritherapy treatment without the risk of the virus re-emerging. This is what could happen if scientists are able to develop a virus “eradication treatment. A discovery made by Dr Rafick-Pierre Sékaly (director of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Florida) and published in Nature Medicine supports this hope. Dr Sékaly identified these infamous reservoir cells where the virus seeks refuge when the patient is under antiretroviral treatment. “These are memory cells found in the blood, the glands and the spleen, for example”, the researcher explains. Hidden away in the DNA of these cells, the virus is able to resist antiretroviral treatment and this prevents a total cure being effected.

A kind of chemotherapy

“We are preparing to launch a clinical trial on monkeys”, explained Dr Sékaly. The aim is to develop a strategy to destroy the infected cells, “a kind of chemotherapy”. To do this all the memory cells concerned must be more accurately identified and located and a better method for destroying them established. So when will treatment for all seropositive patients be available? “The first to be treated will no doubt be those with the largest reservoirs, so that we are able to observe a good reduction in the virus”, explains Dr Sékaly. These impressive advances in research already offer hope that one day all sufferers will be able to benefit from a treatment aimed at bringing about a total cure. “Within ten years…”, the professor states.

Source : IAS, ANRS, 22 July 2010; interview with Dr Rafick-Pierre Sékaly, University of Montreal, 30 July 2010

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