WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A recent study, published in Science, revealed that a new experimental injection has been successfully tested on monkeys with HIV, offering a promising step toward a potential cure for the disease.
The collaborative study between Oregon Health & Science University, and the University of California, San Francisco focused on Therapeutic Interfering Particles, or TIPs, which are the small, lab-engineered segments of the HIV virus.
Leor Weinberger, a virologist at the University of California, and his colleagues developed TIPs, which contain about half of the genetic material of the normal HIV.
The idea of injecting an engineered version of HIV in people infected with the disease was first proposed by Dr. Weinberger several years ago.
'I was worried that people would just dismiss me as a wacko, which was not completely unwarranted,' Dr. Weinberger said.
In the study, TIPs were injected into six infant macaques, and 24 hours later, they were injected with a SHIV, a lab-made virus containing the simian immunodeficiency virus along with the gene for HIV's surface protein. Additionally, four monkeys were infected but not treated.
After 30 weeks, five of the treated monkeys remained healthy with their virus levels dropping by 10,000-fold. However, three of the four control animals, became sick and had to be euthanized at 16 weeks.
'There's really nothing that can change the course of disease like this,' said co-author Nancy Haigwood. 'If TIPs can reduce HIV in people like it has in our nonhuman primate study, this technology could open the door to alternative approaches to HIV care and mean people won't have to take medications for the rest of their lives. That is incredibly exciting.'
'The real test, of course, will be the upcoming human clinical trials,' Dr. Weinberger noted. 'But, if TIPs prove effective, we could be on the brink of a new era in HIV treatment that could bring hope to millions of people-particularly in areas where access to antiviral drugs remains a challenge.'
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