Top medical researchers have discovered new HIV antibody that can suppress the virus for about six months without taking the pills every day.
The current study made use of a group monkeys, infused with a broadly neutralizing antibody to HIV combined with an immune stimulating compound.
The findings was disclosed at the 25th Conference on Retroviruses and opportunistic Infections in Boston, it lend a clue to strategies that attempt to achieve sustained drug-free viral remission in people living with HIV.
The research was also giving credibility to by the support of U.S National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the study targeted the viral reservoir, populations of long-lived latently infected cells that harbor the virus and that lead to resurgent viral replication when suppressive therapy was stopped.
Also, scientists from Beth Deaconess Medical Center infected 44 rhesus macaques with simian human immunodeficiency virus on nonhuman primate studies. They initiated daily antiretroviral therapy (ART) during acute infections to suppress the virus to below detectable levels in the monkeys’ blood.
After a 96- week treatment, the monkey was divided into four equal groups, and continued to administer the ART for 16 additional weeks, with the aim to determine whether the combination of HIV antibody and immune stimulant could reduce the viral reservoir while the virus replication was well controlled by the ART.
After discontinuation of the ART, research as it that the virus rebounded in the blood of 11 monkeys that neither received HIV antibodies or immune stimulant after a median of 21days.
The experts also said that six out of the 11 monkeys that received the therapy combination showed a delayed viral rebound after a median of 112 days, the remaining five did not rebound for at-least 168 days.
The principal Investigator of the study, Dan Barounch said that their findings suggest that the development of interventions to articulate and eliminate a fraction of the viral reservoir might be possible.
Also, the researchers revealed that compared with the antiretroviral therapy which needs to be taking daily, this new discovery of antibodies to HIV tend to last longer in the body, and have shown promise for longer acting HIV therapeutics and prevention.
With this new discovery, hope will be restored to the life of people living with the virus because it will bring much longer life to them and also eliminate the everyday taking of pills by the time the administration commences.