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In Search of an HIV-AIDS free World : Update-I

Today, HIV-AIDS free world is just a dream. But, the scientists believe in transforming dreams into reality. As everyone knows that once a person gets affected he carries the HIV through out his life. The use of continuous HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy)which is the latest standard therapy against HIV till date, can only control the number of virus particle in the body. It is possible that after taking HAART for few years, the viral load becomes undetectable in the blood. But that doesn’t mean the removal of HIV entirely from the system. A gap in taking HAART of 1-2 weeks can lead to increase the numbers significantly as shown in the graph below:

[Fig-1 :  HIV Reservoir Persists During HAART , SOURCE: Davey Smith, MD, MAS, of UC San Diego AntiViral Research Center, slide "The Lastest on HIV Cure” http://www.slideshare.net/ucsdavrc/aids-...80114smith]

The reason is at the time of primary infection there are two possibilities:
1) Some of the CD4+ cells affected by HIV will face apoptotic death.
2) Some of the cells will enter a quiescent state leading to the formation of CD4+ memory cell where the genomic information of the HIV will be hidden as the Provirus state.

In the second case the latent HIV is unaffected by natural HAART because this affects only when the proteins are translated from the genomic information not the gene itself. Thus the latent HIV is kept hidden from the immune system also. In absence of HAART the viral genes are transcribed followed by translation producing mature viral particle and thereby expressing HIV-AIDS again. So, it is pretty sure that if these latent reservoirs are removed completely a fully cured HIV free body system can be achieved.

[Fig-2 The HIV latent reservoir.   a) Normal mechanism of T cell proliferation and formation of Memory cell; b) Formation of HIV reservoir (CD4+ lymphocytes) which is sometime reactivated by the secondary interaction with the antigen. SOURCE: Mayte Coiras, María Rosa López-Huertas, Mayte Pérez-Olmeda & José Alcamí, “Understanding HIV-1 latency provides clues for the eradication of long-term reservoirs”, Nature Reviews Microbiology 7, 798-812 (November 2009) | doi:10.1038/nrmicro2223]

One strategy is proposed by the leading scientists of AIDS Research Alliance of America, Los Angeles, CA. The target is to stimulate and activate the latent HIV Provirus genes and unmask them infront of the HAART. Once the CD4+ cells containing the viral genes express the viral proteins HAAT can easily target those and eradicate them from the system. This way if all the HIV reservoirs are stimulated and treated while taking HAART very soon the viral load will become zero to make the body HIV free.

The researchers of  AIDS Research Alliance have isolated a chemical compound called Prostatin which can act as an potential transcription factor to initiate the transcription of the viral gene. Prostratin is a member of a distinct subclass of protein kinase C (PKC) activators. By activating the  PKC pathway it initiates a series of  events that result in assembling the other necessary transcription factors that finally “turn on” viral gene expression. This compound is already patented by the institute (Methods of Administering prostratin and Structural Analogs Thereof, US Application No.: 12/937,364, European Patent Application No. 09730430.7).

[Fig-3: The action of Prostratin, SOURCE:aidsresearch.org]

Also the right to produce Prostratin synthetically is granted to the institute by the Stanford University. The researchers have already progressed a lot to develop Prostratin into a potential drug. Once they become successful in doing so in different trial processes and get approved by the FDA , the world will get the first ever weapon to combat with HIV with the hope to defeat it completely.
The day is not far away when the dream of having a world without a single HIV-AIDS patient will be a reality !

To know more about the progress of developing Prostratin Visit : http://aidsresearch.org/cure-research/our-progress