New research is an important step towards curing AIDS

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, October 19 (Intern Reporter Zhang Jiaxin) For more than 40 years, scientists around the world have been trying to find a cure for AIDS, but they have not yet succeeded
.
Now, an international team of researchers, led by Aarhus University in Denmark, has found a way to
boost the body's own ability to fight HIV.
The related paper was published in
the journal Nature Medicine on the 17th.
Researchers believe that this is an important step
towards curing AIDS.

Currently, antiretroviral therapy (ART) is mainly used to treat HIV and prevent the onset of AIDS, which suppresses the amount of virus in the blood and partially restores the immune system
.
However, if ART therapy is stopped, the amount of virus in the blood rises to the level
before treatment began within a few weeks.
That's because HIV is hidden in the genome of some of the body's immune cells, and this study targeted and intervened on
those cells.

The researchers looked at the effects
of two types of experimental drugs on people who had recently been diagnosed with AIDS.

Study participants from Denmark and the United Kingdom were randomly divided into four groups, all of whom received ART
.
Some of them also received the drug romidesin, which prevents the virus from hiding in
the body's immune cells.
Others receive a monoclonal antibody drug against HIV, which may clear infected cells and boost their immune systems
.
One group received ART without the experimental drug, while the other group received ART and a combination of two experimental drugs
.

The findings suggest that newly diagnosed HIV carriers who take anti-HIV monoclonal antibodies at the same time as treatment will experience faster viral declines after treatment is started and develop better immunity to HIV
.
If they suspend their usual anti-HIV medications, their immune system can also partially or completely suppress the virus
.

The theory behind the experiment is that monoclonal antibodies help the immune system recognize and kill infected cells
.

In addition, antibodies bind to viruses that eventually enter the lymph nodes to form large complexes that stimulate certain immune cells to become immune to HIV
.
In this way, the body may be able to control the spread of the virus and "protect" itself from the harm
caused by HIV infection.

Previous clinical trials of experimental drugs have shown that if ART therapy is suspended, people do not have any significant effect
on HIV immunity or the immune system's ability to suppress infection.

The researchers say that despite the remarkable results, further ways to optimize treatment outcomes are needed before HIV can be seen to be completely cured
.