Alcoholism drug brings dormant HIV virus out of hiding(sciencealert.com)
sciencealert.com
Alcoholism drug brings dormant HIV virus out of hiding
http://www.sciencealert.com/alcoholism-drug-brings-dormant-hiv-virus-out-of-hiding
3 comments
>30 people for 3 days, unblinded [1], and this is considered of significance?
Why not, if the effect is big enoug?
Why not, if the effect is big enoug?
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see evidence that this is the latent HIV leaving its hidden reservoirs (and making all of it instances vulnerable to treatment) rather than just reproducing more virus copies into the bloodstream while remaining in the hidden reservoirs.
That is because there is no evidence. It can actually be worse than this as the increase can come from an increase in reproduction in newly susceptible cells.
I have not kept up with this area, but the way to solve this is to work on SIV. Work out the drug combination in primates that will chase SIV out of hiding and cure monkeys then move into humans.
I have not kept up with this area, but the way to solve this is to work on SIV. Work out the drug combination in primates that will chase SIV out of hiding and cure monkeys then move into humans.
> we saw a clear increase in [the] virus in [blood] plasma
Couldn't this be due to the virus actually multiplying instead of waking up?
Couldn't this be due to the virus actually multiplying instead of waking up?
Technically to get HIV reproduction you need to wake up the virus, but if you are seeing more reproduction while the patient is on very effective HAART then it is not a good sign. What you want to see is a reduction in the integrated HIV (i.e. HIV DNA). Unfortunately, even with much stronger drugs this was not seen even after 8 weeks (see my main post above for the references).
The whole idea seems to have no chance given the results of this study [2, 3].
1. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-30...
2. http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanhiv/PIIS2352-3018(...
3. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-30...