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Antibodies, Together with Viral 'Inducers,' Found to Control HIV in Mouse Model
August 18th 2014Although HIV can now be effectively suppressed using anti-retroviral drugs, it still comes surging back the moment the flow of drugs is stopped. Latent reservoirs of HIV-infected cells, invisible to the body’s immune system and unreachable by pharmaceuticals, ensure that the infection will rebound after therapy is terminated. But a new strategy devised by researchers at Rockefeller University harnesses the power of broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV, along with a combination of compounds that induce viral transcription, in order to attack these latent reservoirs of cells in an approach termed “shock and kill.” In tests on mice, 57 percent of animals treated in this way did not have the expected resurgence of virus in their blood after their treatment ended.
