A groundbreaking study now reveals that a new combination drug could suppress HIV for more than six months without needing a top-up.
The infusion offers hope of an alternative to the daily regimen of drugs that people living with HIV have to take to stay alive and prevent the onset of AIDS.
According to a story published in MailOnline, previous attempts to make a long-lasting infusion failed because certain strains of HIV were resistant to the antibodies.
But this version, developed by scientists at Rockefeller University and the National Institutes of Health, successfully circumvented resistance by combining two antibodies together, suppressing HIV for more than 30 weeks in two people, and 15 weeks in most others.
Speaking about it to MailOnline, Dr Carl Dieffenbach, director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institutes of Health, said, “This is an important step.”
He went on to add, “We knew that a single antibody couldn't hold the fort, but this starts drawing parallels between the things we know are effective, and what's possible. It makes the argument that it may be doing something.”
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania attempted the same in 2016 with one strain, but the virus quickly became wise to the treatment, and resisted it.
The study, published in the journal Nature, involved 11 people who were religiously taking a regimen of ART. Each of them have strains of the virus which are resistant to one of the antibodies.
After receiving the infusion, they stopped taking their ART.
Two people saw a resurgence of the virus within 12 weeks. But the rest saw impressive results.
Two of them still had control over the virus 30 weeks after the infusion, while the other seven of them were virally suppressed for around 15 weeks.
However, it is not clear why the two study participants were
It's not clear why two of the study participants were protected for so long, though experts caution that a few select people can naturally maintain viral suppression for years.
Dr Dieffenbach also warned that one has to remember that the patients were not directly suppressed by the antibodies adding that more studies are needed in more people with more antibodies.
