Scientists see mechanism for spontaneous HIV `cure` French scientists said mid this week that they had found the genetic mechanism by which two HIV-infected men may have experienced a “spontaneous cure”, and said it offered a new strategy in the fight against AIDS. Both men were infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), one of them 30 years ago, but never developed AIDS symptoms. The AIDS-causing virus remained in their immune cells but was inactivated because its genetic code had been altered, the scientists said. The change appeared to be linked to increased activity of a common enzyme named APOBEC, they theorised. The “apparent spontaneous cure” throws up an intriguing avenue for drug engineers, the team said in a statement. “The work opens up therapeutic avenues for a cure, using or stimulating this enzyme, and avenues for identifying individuals among newly-infected patients who have a chance of a spontaneous cure.” The work, published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection, was carried out by scientists at Frances Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). HIV replicates by invading human CD4 immune cells, which it reprogrammes’s to become virus factories, with a rare group of people fewer than one per cent of those infected naturally able to rein in viral replication and keep the virus at clinically undetectable levels. They are known as “elite controllers”, but the mechanism by which they keep the virus at bay remains a mystery. The French group looked at two such individuals, a 57-year-old man diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985, and a 23-year-old diagnosed in 2011, and sequenced their virus genomes. Though they remained infected, standard tests could not detect the virus in their blood. The team found that in both cases, the virus was unable to replicate in immune cells due to mutations in its genetic code. The researchers suggested spontaneous evolution between humans and the virus, a process called “endogenisation” that is believed to have neutralised other viruses in humans in the past. A similar process has been witnessed in populations of koalas that has integrated an AIDS-like virus into their genes, neutralised it, and were passing resistance on to their offspring. “We propose that HIV cure may occur through HIV endogenisation in humans,” the team wrote. “These findings suggest that without therapeutic and prophylactic strategies, after several decades of HIV/host integrations and millions of deaths, it is likely that a few individuals might have endogenised and neutralized the virus and transmitted it to their progeny,” they added. “We believe that the persistence of HIV DNA can lead to cure, and protection, from HIV.” The approach hitherto has been the opposite: to try and clear all traces of HIV from human cells and from cell reservoirs where they hide. Follow the link for the rest of the article
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:18:20 +0000