Small Study Shows a Promising Path Toward HIV Cure

“The idea is that if you increase immunologic control of virus, then you might be able to prevent or slow viral rebound after you stop antiretroviral therapy,” said Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He led the primate study. His lab is also running a clinical trial testing combinations of immunotherapy in people, and expects to report results next year.

Barouch noted that because of the lack of control group, it was not conclusive that the rebound was slower in the six people in the San Francisco study. But he said what was most intriguing to him was that the researchers found that those patients who appeared to partially control the virus had an early response in a specific population of T cells. Read Full Article