Promising Research May Have Found A Way To Destroy HIV
A Houston lab has made some recent developments that some believe might lead to a cure for HIV.
“We have found an innovative way to kill the virus by finding this small region of HIV that is unchangeable,” Dr. Sudhir Paul of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston said.
Dr. Paul and Dr. Miguel Escobar are saying this is more than just suppressing the virus, it’s about destroying it permanently by arming the immune system with a new weapon lab tests have shown to be effective.
One HIV positive man said he has been on a powerful drug cocktail that keeps the disease in check.
“I’m on four different medications. Three of them are brand new, and it’s the first time that I’ve ever been non-detectible,” said Ford Stuart, who has been HIV positive for 15 years.
“I’m down to about ““ just for the HIV ““ about nine pills per day, five in the morning and four at night.”
Stuart, however, is wise about the nature of his disease and knows HIV mutates, and eventually it will learn how to outsmart his medications.
“The virus is truly complex and has many tricks up its sleeve,” Paul said.
Yet, he believes he may have cracked its code.
“We’ve discovered the weak spot of HIV,” he said.
He said he and his team have zeroed in on a section of a key protein in HIV’s structure that does not mutate.
“The virus needs at least one constant region, and that is the essence of calling it the Achilles heel,” Paul said.
They believe this weakness can be exploited with something called an abzyme””which is naturally produced by people, like lupus patients.
When they applied that abzyme to the HIV virus, it permanently disarmed it.
“What we already have in our hand are the abzymes that we could be infusing into the human subjects with HIV infection, essentially to move the virus,” Paul said.
They’re hoping that this basic idea could be used to control the disease for people who already have it and prevent infection for those at risk.
So far, their theory has held up in lab and animal testing with the next step being human trials.
Meanwhile, three new people a day are diagnosed with HIV in Houston, Texas.
Critical funding must first be secured for human trials and in the world of HIV research, that’s often where things fall apart.
“Clinical trials are very expensive. That is the worry of the researcher. This is what nightmares are made of ““ that after 30 years of work, you find it doesn’t work,” Paul said.
But, so far, it is working and researchers remain hopeful.
“This is the holy grail of HIV research, to develop a preventative vaccine,” Paul said.
Escobar said If they can get the viral loads down to a manageable level, that will preclude the need for these conventional drugs.
Yet even with success, it’s at least five years before the research could help people with HIV, and doctors know people like Ford Stuart are waiting.
“There are so many people struggling with the disease because it affects not only your body, but also your psyche, how you perceive yourself,” he said.
If nothing else, the research is promising for the tens of millions waiting for a cure.
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