Breakthrough in the search for HIV drugs stunned researchers - Guardian

HIV drugs may be one step closer after researchers find a new way to force the virus out of human cells. A team of scientists from Melbourne has figured out how to make the virus visible in white blood cells, paving the way for its complete elimination from the body. This is reported by the Guardian, reports UNN.

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The ability of the virus to hide inside certain white blood cells has been one of the main problems for scientists looking for a cure for the disease. This means that there is a reservoir of HIV in the body that is capable of reactivation, which neither the immune system nor medications can cope with.

Now, researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne have demonstrated a way to make the virus visible, paving the way for its complete elimination from the body.

It is based on mRNA technology, which became known during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an article published in Nature Communications , the researchers showed for the first time that mRNA can be delivered to cells where HIV is hiding by encapsulating it in a tiny, specially designed fat bubble. The mRNA then commands the cells to detect the virus.

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There are nearly 40 million people living with HIV in the world who have to take medication for the rest of their lives to suppress the virus and prevent the development of symptoms and transmission of the infection. For many, it remains deadly, and UNAIDS data show that one person died from HIV every minute in 2023.

It was previously thought "impossible" to deliver mRNA to the type of white blood cells in which HIV is found. Because these cells did not absorb the fat bubbles or lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) used to transfer it

The team developed a new type of LNP, known as LNP X, that these cells will accept. Scientists hope that this new nanoparticle design could become a new way to treat HIV, she added.

When a colleague first presented the results of the tests at the weekly laboratory meeting, according to Sevaal, they seemed too successful to be true.

We sent her back to the lab to repeat the testing. And the following week, she came back with results that were just as good. So we had to believe it. And, of course, we've repeated it many, many, many times since then

Further research is needed to determine whether detection of the virus is sufficient for the body's immune system to cope with it, or whether the technology will need to be combined with other treatments to eliminate HIV from the body.

The research is being conducted in the laboratory on donor cells from HIV-infected patients. The path to using this technology as part of patient treatment is long and will require successful trials in animals and then in humans. And it will probably be years before scientists can draw reasonable conclusions.

When it comes to HIV treatment, we have never seen anything close to what we are seeing now, in terms of how well we are able to detect this virus. So from that point of view, we are very hopeful that we will be able to observe such a reaction in animals as well, and eventually, we will be able to do it in humans

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