"Hopes for HIV eradication have been stymied by the current crop of antiretroviral drugs’ inability to get at the reservoir of inactive HIV-infected CD4 cells that hide in the body. Now, Robert Siliciano, MD, PhD, from Johns Hopkins University says not only that it’s possible to get at these cells, but that his lab is already on track to identifying drugs that can wake up these cells. The discovery represents a significant step on the path to ultimately curing HIV. ...
"The only way to get at this virus is to activate the resting memory CD4 cells, but turning them all on at the same time could be deadly. So how can you turn on only the cells that are infected?
"This seemingly impossible task is exactly what Siliciano and his colleagues set out to tackle. Using a line of cells that they’ve developed, researchers can determine whether various chemical compounds can activate resting CD4s infected with HIV. They’ve already found a handful of compounds that can selectively activate infected cells. While none of these are likely to be safe enough for human use, Siliciano’s group is going to keep looking, and their accomplishment represents a significant step forward in the search for a cure.
"'I’d always been pretty pessimistic about this whole approach,' Siliciano says, “but in looking at about 4,000 drugs, we got nine 'hits.' It wasn’t actually that hard to find these drugs.'"
Read more in POZ, October 13, 2009.
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