Although HIV has already been responsible for many deaths in the past, currently, with the evolution of antiretroviral therapy, most patients live in a healthy and controlled way — despite the fact that the virus has not completely disappeared from the body.
However, researchers from Spain and Japan may have taken a new step towards a treatment that eliminates the virus from the body. They discovered a protein that is involved in the pathogen’s “dormant” process.
One of the biggest difficulties in the cure is that HIV goes into a latent state, hidden from treatment, and when the patient stops taking the medication, he can start acting again. The study was published in the scientific journal Communications Biology, from the Nature group, this Wednesday (10/5).
“Latency is a major barrier preventing virus shedding in HIV-infected individuals. We will not be able to cure an existing infection until we get rid of all infected cells. Therefore, it is essential to understand how this latency works”, explains Professor Andreas Meyerhans, author of the study and researcher at the Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain, in a statement.
Once in the human body, HIV destroys some types of white blood cells, reducing the body’s defense capacity against other infections. The identified protein is called Schlafen 12 (SLFN12), and the word of German origin means “sleeping”.
According to the scientists, the substance turns off the production of proteins by defense cells infected with HIV, preventing the replication of the pathogen, but keeping the virus RNA in a latent state.
Schlafen 12 also causes the cells to just keep making a protein that isn’t normally useful but is essential for HIV.
“Blocking the antiviral functions of SLFN12 should increase viral protein expression and thus allow the host immune system and antiviral drugs to better clear viral reservoirs. Once you start producing the virus, it becomes visible again and you retrieve your target. This way, you can attack it and, with luck, permanently eliminate the latent infected cells”, says Meyerhans.
The researchers believe that the discovery could lead to the development of new, more effective drugs against the disease in the hope of finally eliminating it.
Difference for cases already considered cured
In recent years, science has managed to cure five patients with HIV. However, in all cases, the individuals had cancer and needed a bone marrow transplant. The doctors in charge chose donors who had a mutation that prevents them from producing CCR5, a spike-like receptor in the coronavirus, responsible for enabling HIV to enter the cell.
Thus, infected patients were able to eliminate all HIV from the body, since the pathogen had no way of binding itself to cells.
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