Researchers cure HIV in mice

“This is proof of concept that a cure of HIV is possible,” said Dr. Howard Gendelman, chairman of UNMC’s pharmacology and experimental neuroscience department. “We are at the cusp of a scientific revolution in human genomes that can change the course, quality and longevity of life.”

In the study, researchers used two therapies: a formulation of HIV drugs to suppress the virus followed by a gene-editing therapy cutting HIV from their genomes.

“We’re going at the root cause,” Gendelman said. “We’re going after the virus that’s already integrated in the genome of the host cell.”

No technology since the AIDS epidemic has ever fully eliminated HIV.

“Elimination of HIV-1 requires clearance and removal of integrated proviral DNA from infected cells and tissues,” the study wrote, which was published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

A third of the mice in the study showed zero signs of HIV infection for up to five weeks after treatment.

“In my view, this is the most interesting and important therapy-related research advance I have seen in many, many years,” said Dr. Robert Gallo, who was one of the researchers who determined HIV as the cause of AIDS.

Researchers said the next step is to continue combination therapy in animals and move to clinical trials in humans.

UNAIDS estimated over 36.7 million people worldwide are infected with HIV-1 and over 5,000 people are infected each day.

“There are several reasons why [a cure] has not yet been realized,” the study said. “This includes inadequate therapeutic access to viral reservoirs, rapid spread of infection by continuous sources of virus and susceptible cells, and a failure to eliminate residual latent integrated proviral DNA.”

Without treatment, HIV can turn into AIDS, which has an average prognosis of three years after diagnosis.

Researchers hope to conduct a Phase I clinical trial in humans by mid-2020.