New therapy could keep HIV at bay without the need for daily pills: Treatment using human antibodies ‘stops virus for up to 19 weeks’

June 23, 2016 tunisante

Kate Pickles For Mailonline

Published:
03:40 EST, 23 June 2016

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Updated:
04:21 EST, 23 June 2016

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A new therapy has been found to keep HIV at bay months after patients stopped taking antiretroviral medications.

The treatment involves infusions of human antibodies which prompt the immune system to battle HIV infection.

It has already shown promise in protecting people against the virus.

In the new study, it was found to stave off a resurgence of HIV for up to 19 weeks in chronically infected people who had stopped taking the drugs.

HIV continues to replicate in the body even if it’s undetectable in the blood but a new therapy using human antibodies was found to suppress viral loads weeks after patients stopped taking antiretroviral medication

One of the key battles in treating HIV is that it continues to replicate in the body even if it’s undetectable in the blood after antiretroviral treatment.

This explains how the virus rapidly bounces back – and keeps growing – after a patient stops taking antiretroviral drugs.

But in the trial of the new drug – called 3BNC117 – all 13 participants saw their viral loads suppressed to very low levels for at least five weeks after their last treatment.

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Scientists at Rockefeller University said nearly half of patients saw the same effect for nine weeks – three times longer than is considered normal.

None of the patients experienced acute retroviral syndrome — a powerful resurgence of the virus that makes it harder to regain control of HIV following a medication lapse, the Los Angeles Times reports.

And using antibodies against HIV could be part of a ‘kick and kill’ – i.e. kick the virus out of its hiding places and kill it’, said study co-author Dr. Michel Nussenzweig.

Last year, a study found it was safe and well tolerated, and briefly reduced the amount of the virus in patients’ blood.

This time, scientists investigated the effect it had on hidden reservoirs of the virus that can lay dormant in the body and typically emerge and rebound when treatment is stopped.

Scientists say more work is needed to determine how sustainable the effects of the treatment could be.

But it is hoped an antibody therapy could one day be developed to prevent HIV and even cure it.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

One of the key battles in treating HIV is that it continues to replicate in the body even if it’s undetectable in the blood after taking antiretroviral medication (file image)