HIV Vaccine Therapy News 2017: Five Patients Can Now Control Virus Without Daily Drugs

By Georgia Gana, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Though there is no known cure for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the condition can be managed by antiretroviral drugs (ART). Now, a new study that used vaccine-based therapy has been quickly gaining traction due its promising results wherein five patients are currently drug-free.

People with HIV need to take ART to prevent the virus from compromising their immune system. However, this method is thought to be time-consuming as medication has to be taken religiously. If not, the virus quickly resurfaces. There are also many side effects associated with the drug.

As such, a lot of people have been paying attention to the study conducted by Beatriz Mothe and her colleagues at the IrsiCaixa Institute for AIDS Research in Spain.

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According to the New Scientist, three years ago, the trial commenced with 24 participants who were recently diagnosed with HIV. There were given two vaccines that were developed by Tomas Hanke and his University of Oxford colleagues. The participants also took ART. Their responses were then monitored to see which had a stronger effect.

This year, 15 participants received a booster dose of the vaccine, three doses of romidepsin — a cancer drug that can deplete the HIV reservoir — and another vaccine booster. The participants also stopped taking ART.

During the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) two weeks ago, Mothe announced the results of the study. For 10 of the participants, the virus re-emerged quickly and they had to return to taking ART. However, five participants had a successful response to the virus and do not currently have to take daily drugs.

One participant has been drug-free for seven months while it has been 6, 14, 19 and 21 weeks, respectively, for the other four participants.

At this time, Mothe and the other researchers are investigating why some of the participants did not respond in the same way. Nevertheless, the fact that it had succeeded for some participants is very promising. However, it should be noted that there is still a chance that the virus may return, as shown by other studies.

"The results are encouraging, but it is difficult to gauge what the effect of the procedure actually was because of the uncontrolled nature of the study," Dr. Daniel Douek, immunologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Science magazine.

This, though, hasn't fazed Mothe and her team as they see the need to explore this treatment method in further studies.

"It is a proof of concept that with vaccines we might be able to re-educate our immune system to help control the virus once we interrupt treatment. It is still a small effect, as only five individuals out of the 13 that have interrupted to date show durable control. But still, it is a positive signal to start deciphering the mechanisms that can drive this control, and test how to improve it in future larger studies," Mothe told Digital Trends.