Humanity is one step closer to a cure for HIV after scientists found a new way to make the virus visible inside white blood cells, paving the way for its complete elimination from the bodies of infected patients.
The virus's ability to hide inside certain white blood cells is one of the main challenges for scientists searching for a cure. This means that there is a reservoir of HIV in the body, capable of reactivation, that neither the immune system nor drugs can eliminate.
Now researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity in Melbourne have demonstrated a way to make the virus visible, paving the way for its complete removal from the body.
It is based on mRNA technology, which came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic when it was used in vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers have shown for the first time that mRNA can be delivered to cells where HIV is hiding by encapsulating it in a tiny, specially formulated fatty vesicle. The mRNA then instructs the cells to detect the virus.
Globally, nearly 40 million people are living with HIV, who must take medication for the rest of their lives to suppress the virus and ensure they do not develop symptoms or pass it on. It remains deadly for many, with UNAIDS data indicating that in 2023, one person died from HIV every minute.
Further research will be needed to determine whether detecting the virus is enough for the body's immune system to deal with it, or whether the technology will need to be combined with other therapies to eliminate HIV from the body.
The study is laboratory-based and was conducted on cells donated by HIV patients. The road to using the technology as part of a treatment for patients is long and would require successful animal trials, followed by safety trials in humans, which would likely take years before efficacy trials could even begin.
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