Scientists get together to find a cure for AIDS
Source: Agencies |
July 21, 2012, Saturday
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A team of scientists has devised a strategy to find a cure for AIDS, an effort inspired by the story of a US patient named Timothy Ray Brown who was cured of the disease.
Brown's treatment in Berlin involved the destruction of his immune system and a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection.
The procedure is too costly and too difficult to replicate on a large scale.
But in the years since his successful treatment in 2007, Brown's story has become a rallying point for scientists who believe the time is now right to seek a cure.
Since the epidemic began 31 years ago, AIDS-related deaths worldwide fell to 1.7 million last year from some 1.8 million in 2010, according to the latest United Nations AIDS program report.
Cocktails of powerful HIV drugs can keep the infection at bay for years, but the virus is wily, weaving itself into the DNA of special immune system cells, where it can lie dormant and out of reach. That makes it necessary for HIV patients to take drugs over a lifetime.
As a result of better access to treatment, more patients with HIV are living near-normal lives, but the numbers of patients needing drugs is rising, increasing the future costs of treatment.
The International Working Group Towards an HIV Cure released its proposed steps toward a cure on Thursday.
The group's co-chair, Francoise Barre Sinoussi, who won a Nobel prize for her part in identifying the human immunodeficiency virus, said the next step will be to determine the cost-effectiveness of the strategy. That work will begin in conjunction with the International Aids Society's 2012 conference, which is being held in Washington next week.
Instead of trying to copy the treatment received by Brown, researchers will seek a similar response in a way that is less costly and easier to replicate.
Among the first tasks will be to continue basic research to understand why the virus persists in the body and where it hides.
Scientists will also need to understand immune system function in HIV patients.
Other teams will need to determine why some patients develop antibodies to the virus, allowing them to control the infection.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said that a decade ago scientists were far less certain about vaccine prospects after repeated trial failures, but sentiment changed in 2009 with the first report in Thailand of a modestly successful vaccine trial.
"Now I can say, I'm confident that we'll get a vaccine, I just can't tell you when," Fauci said.
Brown's treatment in Berlin involved the destruction of his immune system and a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection.
The procedure is too costly and too difficult to replicate on a large scale.
But in the years since his successful treatment in 2007, Brown's story has become a rallying point for scientists who believe the time is now right to seek a cure.
Since the epidemic began 31 years ago, AIDS-related deaths worldwide fell to 1.7 million last year from some 1.8 million in 2010, according to the latest United Nations AIDS program report.
Cocktails of powerful HIV drugs can keep the infection at bay for years, but the virus is wily, weaving itself into the DNA of special immune system cells, where it can lie dormant and out of reach. That makes it necessary for HIV patients to take drugs over a lifetime.
As a result of better access to treatment, more patients with HIV are living near-normal lives, but the numbers of patients needing drugs is rising, increasing the future costs of treatment.
The International Working Group Towards an HIV Cure released its proposed steps toward a cure on Thursday.
The group's co-chair, Francoise Barre Sinoussi, who won a Nobel prize for her part in identifying the human immunodeficiency virus, said the next step will be to determine the cost-effectiveness of the strategy. That work will begin in conjunction with the International Aids Society's 2012 conference, which is being held in Washington next week.
Instead of trying to copy the treatment received by Brown, researchers will seek a similar response in a way that is less costly and easier to replicate.
Among the first tasks will be to continue basic research to understand why the virus persists in the body and where it hides.
Scientists will also need to understand immune system function in HIV patients.
Other teams will need to determine why some patients develop antibodies to the virus, allowing them to control the infection.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said that a decade ago scientists were far less certain about vaccine prospects after repeated trial failures, but sentiment changed in 2009 with the first report in Thailand of a modestly successful vaccine trial.
"Now I can say, I'm confident that we'll get a vaccine, I just can't tell you when," Fauci said.
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