A team of scientists from five UK universities could have possibly broken through with a cure for HIV if a therapy they have designed proves successful against the virus.
From the therapy, it is argued that a British man could become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV.
The 44-year-old man is one of 50 people trialling the treatment which targets HIV even in its dormant state.
Scientists carrying out the trial were quoted by The Sunday Times that presently the virus is completely undetectable in the man’s blood. They, however, pointed out that this could be a result regular drugs use.
The upside is that if the dormant cells are also cleared out, it could represent the first complete cure. Trial results are expected to be published in 2018.
Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure said, "This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it's still early days but the progress has been remarkable.”
Researchers undertaking the research are from Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London and King's College London universities.
HIV targets the immune system, splicing itself into the DNA of T-cells so that they not only ignore the disease but turn into viral factories which reproduce the virus. This makes it difficult to treat.
Anti-retroviral therapies (Art) target the splicing process but cannot spot dormant infected T-cells.
The latest therapy works in two stages by first having a vaccination that helps the body recognise the HIV-infected cells so it can clear them out. Secondly, a new drug called Vorinostat activates the dormant T-cells so they can be spotted by the immune system.
Timothy Brown, also known as the ‘second’ Berlin Patient, is the only one person to have ever been cured of HIV. He received a stem cell transplant from a patient with natural immunity to HIV in 2008.