Researchers say they may have found a way to bring a cure for HIV a step closer by deploying the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines. The team at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, Australia, reports they can now force HIV out of hiding inside white blood cells—a critical challenge in the decades-long search for a cure. HIV's ability to stay dormant in so-called reservoir cells has kept it shielded from both drugs and the immune system. The finding could provide a way to totally clear the virus from patients' bodies, the Guardian reports.
The study published in Nature Communications outlines how mRNA encased in a specially designed fat bubble—dubbed LNP X—can now penetrate these hard-to-reach cells and trigger the release of hidden virus, a feat researchers say was previously thought impossible. "Our hope is that this new nanoparticle design could be a new pathway to an HIV cure," study co-author Dr. Paula Cevaal tells the Guardian. The method worked consistently in laboratory tests on cells from HIV patients. Dr. Michael Roche, another co-author, says the same technology could fight other diseases, including cancers.
Experts not involved in the research called the findings a significant potential advance. Still, many caution that much work remains to be done: Scientists still need to prove that unmasking the virus is enough for the body—or future therapies—to clear it. Animal studies and safety trials in humans lie ahead, and any potential therapy would be years away. "In the field of biomedicine, many things eventually don't make it into the clinic—that is the unfortunate truth; I don't want to paint a prettier picture than what is the reality," Cevaal tells the Guardian. "But in terms of specifically the field of HIV cure, we have never seen anything close to as good as what we are seeing, in terms of how well we are able to reveal this virus."
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