HIV can be Curable: bright light at the end of the tunnel ?

August 21, 2005

Dear Forum,

There appears to a bright light at the end of the tunnel - HIV can finally be

fought more effectively and people can be free of HIV. Its a very encouraging

development for all of us who are deeply involved in this issue. We need to

follow the developments very closely.

" A new treatment strategy has shown promise in helping to transform HIV into a

curable infection. Preliminary research published this week in Lancet journal

outlines how scientists used an anti-convulsant drug, valproic acid, to awaken

the dormant HIV hiding in the body, where it is temporarily invisible but still

dangerous. "

The recent Times Of India, INDIA article (shown in blue) dated 13-08-2005 shows

that - please read it.

With warm regards.

SUMAN JANA

E-mail: <sumanjana@...>

__________________________

LONDON: A new treatment strategy has shown promise in helping to transform HIV

into a curable infection.

While the HIV virus poses no threat in its resting state, the sleeping cells

sporadically wake up, reactivating the virus and causing it to multiply.

Patients must continue to take medications for the rest of their lives so they

can fight the virus when it comes out of the reawakened cells. Only if every

last infected dormant cell is wiped out - or the virus purged from these cells -

can patients stop taking medication and be virus-free, experts say.

Figuring out how to clear this reservoir of latent infection, or whether that's

even possible, is one of the hottest areas of AIDS research.

Over the last few years, a handful of drugs have been shown to decrease the size

of the dormant HIV pool, but they were subsequently abandoned because their

effect was either too weak or the side effects too toxic.

The latest drug, valproic acid, shows more promise, said Warner Greene, director

of the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology at the University of

California, San Francisco.

Recommended Posts