The Search For A Cure

 

     HIV is treatable, but not curable.  Medications can keep a patient alive throughout their normal lifespan but are are unable to eliminate the virus entirely.  According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, HIV cure research is currently focusing on identifying latent HIV viruses throughout the body and understanding the ways that HIV survives current treatments (NIH, 2015).

 

     One significant issue facing HIV cure researchers is the existence of the HIV reservoir, a small group of cells that contain HIV DNA hidden in their genomes.  This reservoir poses a serious problem to researchers, because it exists even in patients that appear to be cured of their infection.  Antiretroviral drugs can keep the HIV cells dormant, but if a patient stops taking their medications, they will experience a relapse (Cohen, 2014).  

 

     In early 2015, a possible cure received FDA approval to begin clinical trials on humans.  The cure is based off a rare white blood cell mutation that makes a small percentage of individuals immune to HIV infection.  Researchers at Sangamo BioSciences Inc. have removed stem cells from HIV patients and genetically modified them, causing them to form white blood cells with the desired immune mutation.  This treatment worked extremely well in a small test study conducted on 12 patients and will now be tested on a much larger scale (Dovey, 2015).  If shown to be safe and effective, these researchers could be one step closer to a cure for HIV.