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Updated: Apr 4, 2026
06:07
Oral Combinational Antiretroviral Treatment in HIV-1 Infected Humanized Mice
Published on: October 6, 2022
3.0K
[Is it possible to cure HIV infection?]
Carolina Gutiérrez, Nadia P Madrid, Santiago Moreno1
1Santiago Moreno, Servicio de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal Carretera de Colmenar, Km. 9,100 - 28034, Madrid, Spain. smguillen@salud.madrid.org.
Summary
Antiretroviral therapy improves HIV life expectancy but doesn't cure the infection. Strategies to eliminate the viral reservoir are under investigation, but their effectiveness in reducing reservoir size remains unproven.
Area of Science:
- Virology and Immunology
- Infectious Diseases
- Drug Discovery and Development
Context:
- Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has transformed HIV management, increasing life expectancy for infected individuals.
- Despite ART, HIV is not cured due to persistent viral reservoirs and replication in sanctuary sites.
- Latently infected cells represent a major barrier to achieving a functional HIV cure.
Purpose:
- To explore strategies aimed at curing HIV infection by targeting the latent viral reservoir.
- To investigate the potential of latency-reversing agents (LRAs) in eliminating HIV-infected cells.
- To assess the clinical efficacy of proposed HIV cure strategies.
Summary:
- Current HIV cure strategies focus on reactivating latent HIV to purge the viral reservoir.
- Clinical trials have demonstrated the proof of concept for latency-reversal approaches.
- However, the definitive efficacy of these therapeutic interventions in significantly reducing the size of the HIV reservoir has not yet been established.
Impact:
- Understanding reservoir dynamics is crucial for developing effective HIV cure interventions.
- Further research is needed to optimize latency-reversal therapies and confirm their clinical benefit.
- Successful elimination of the viral reservoir could lead to a functional cure for HIV.
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