Scientists are exploring new ways to help the body’s immune system find and destroy cells infected with HIV. Researchers are studying a new type of drug that may make HIV-infected cells easier for the immune system to recognise. This research could one day become part of new HIV cure strategies.

Why is HIV difficult for the immune system to find?
Our immune system is very good at finding and fighting many infections. However, HIV has ways of hiding from the immune system. When HIV infects a cell, it can change the outside of the cell so that it is harder for the immune system to recognise. This makes it more difficult for the body’s natural defences to find and destroy HIV-infected cells.

Helping the immune system see HIV
Researchers are testing medicines called CD4 mimetics. These medicines are designed to change the shape of HIV proteins on infected cells. This can make parts of HIV easier for antibodies and other immune cells to see. One of the drugs being studied is called CJF-III-288.

In laboratory studies, this drug helped antibodies recognise HIV-infected cells more easily. It also helped immune cells remove more of these infected cells. Researchers have also tested the drug with blood samples from people living with HIV. The results suggest that the drug can improve the immune response, although the effect was different between people.

What could this mean for the future?
This research is still in the early stages. The drug is not an HIV cure and is not currently available as HIV treatment. Instead, researchers are looking at whether medicines like this could become part of future HIV cure strategies. The goal is to help the immune system find HIV that is hiding in the body. This could potentially be combined with other treatments being studied for an HIV cure.

HIV research continues
HIV treatment today is highly effective at controlling the virus and helping people living with HIV stay healthy. At the same time, researchers continue to look for new ways to help the body clear HIV completely. Research like this is one part of that work. While there is still a long way to go, scientists are continuing to find new ways to understand HIV and help the immune system fight it. There is currently no widely available cure for HIV, but research continues to explore what a future cure could look like.

Read more: https://www.aidsmap.com/…immune-response-hiv