HIV cure hope after UK trial of pioneering virus treatment

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**angelofvengeance**

Sometimes it's hard to have faith in humanity but this is a great step forward

.

http://news.sky.com/story/hiv-cure-hope-after-uk-trial-of-pioneering-virus-treatment-10602787

Scientists say a 44-year-old patient showed "remarkable" progress under the therapy that uses a "kick and kill" technique.

A British man who is undergoing a pioneering treatment for HIV hopes to become the first person in the world to be cured of the virus, it has been reported.

Scientists treating the 44-year-old patient said he had shown "remarkable" progress under the therapy, designed to track down and destroy the virus in every part of the body.

He is the first of 50 people to complete a trial of the treatment, described as "one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV".

Scientists say it is one of the first serious attempts to find a full cure
HIV is the virus which causes AIDS - which leaves an individual's immune system too weak to be able to fight off infection.

If the bid to find an irreversible cure is successful, it could not only save the NHS millions of pounds but also offer hope to the almost 37 million people living with HIV globally.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the most serious HIV and AIDS epidemic in the world, with southern Africa the worst affected region.

The trailblazing research is being carried out by a collaboration between five of the UK's top universities, organised by the NHS.

Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure, told the Sunday Times: "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."

The trial patient told the newspaper recent blood tests showed no detectable HIV virus was present, although it was too early to confirm that the treatment had worked.

It is possible conventional drugs could have suppressed the virus.

The existing treatment using antiretroviral therapies (ART) is not a cure, as it fails to rid patients of HIV, but can control the virus enabling people to live a longer, healthier life.

The latest research is testing a "kick and kill" technique to first expose then destroy the virus completely.

**Orlanth**

Interesting. HIV is already survivable now for the duration of a natural life, but a full cure could mean an eradication programme.

**Ketara**

Phenomenal. Staggering. Worth a half dozen Nobel prizes if it turns out to work, and many other accolades even if it doesn't; even a treatment that only needs to be repeated every few years would be of incalculable value. Not needing to take immunosuppressants would give those with HIV a quality of life akin to a normal person.

**angelofvengeance**

Ketara wrote:
Phenomenal. Staggering. Worth a half dozen Nobel prizes if it turns out to work, and many other accolades even if it doesn't; even a treatment that only needs to be repeated every few years would be of incalculable value. Not needing to take immunosuppressants would give those with HIV a quality of life akin to a normal person.

Hopefully it won't have ass-hats like Martin Shkreli jack up the price of the medication eh?

**A Town Called Malus**

Ketara wrote:
Phenomenal. Staggering. Worth a half dozen Nobel prizes if it turns out to work, and many other accolades even if it doesn't; even a treatment that only needs to be repeated every few years would be of incalculable value. Not needing to take immunosuppressants would give those with HIV a quality of life akin to a normal person.

I'm pretty sure that HIV patients don't take immunosuppressants, but antiretrovirals (ARVs). HIV attacks the immune system, so giving someone with HIV immunosuppressant medications would only accelerate the effects of the disease, killing them faster.

**jhe90**

Theres people don't get half the credit they deserve

**A Town Called Malus**

jhe90 wrote:
Theres people don't get half the credit they deserve

If this treatment works they are pretty much guaranteed a Nobel Prize and their names will go down in history alongside people like Jenner, Fleming and Salk. People in the sciences couldn't ask for any more recognition and credit than that.

They may also get a knighthood, not that that really means anything any more as they're given out to basically anybody.

**Silent Puffin?**

Orlanth wrote:
Interesting. HIV is already survivable now for the duration of a natural life, but a full cure could mean an eradication programme.

HIV is extremely mutable, a lot depends on exactly how this treatment works.

**Desubot**

Neet

though i though the cure was to inject about 100 grand into your blood stream.

or was that aids?

**Frazzled**

If it works even an idiot like me could see other uses potentially. To cure a virus is unheard of no?

**Silent Puffin?**

Frazzled wrote:
To cure a virus is unheard of no?

Its quite common, about 70% of vaccines provide protection against viruses. Small Pox was a virus and that has now been eradicated in the wild.

Most viral infections are trivial (people get 3-4 every year) but the really scary diseased also tend to be viral, mostly because they are easily transmissible.

**Frazzled**

Is this a vaccine? I thought it was a cure, which are different.

**Desubot**

It sounds like a cure not a vaccine.

its adding things into a person that already has the virus but allows the immune system to kick its ass.

**AlmightyWalrus**

Desubot wrote:
Neet

though i though the cure was to inject about 100 grand into your blood stream.

or was that aids?

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

**Desubot**

AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Desubot wrote:
Neet

though i though the cure was to inject about 100 grand into your blood stream.

or was that aids?

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Its a southpark reference

**Silent Puffin?**

Frazzled wrote:
Is this a vaccine? I thought it was a cure, which are different.

Well vaccines are a sort of cure. There are effective antivirals for most things though, including HIV.

**Orlanth**

Vaccines need not cure the patient to be effective. If they eliminate infectiousness then even if the symptoms are not completely removed or reversed the medicine could eradicate the disease by removing vectors by which it is spread.

**Monkey Tamer**

But the herp is still a danger to barebackers.

**Fifty**

Just to be clear, vaccines are NOT a type of cure. Not at all. Vaccines prevent, cures heal. A vaccine is no good unless administered in advance (or, in huge doses just after infection).

**A Town Called Malus**

Fifty wrote:
Just to be clear, vaccines are NOT a type of cure. Not at all. Vaccines prevent, cures heal. A vaccine is no good unless administered in advance (or, in huge doses just after infection).

Except for Therapeutic Vaccines, but they aren't currently viable.

**Lone Cat**

I've heard of HIV Vaccine some eight years ago