A small, select group of people infected with HIV showed extraordinary immune responses that were able to hold the virus in check after early and aggressive treatment.
Researchers in France have closely followed 14 patients who were treated within 10 weeks of infection with combination antiretroviral drugs (cART) for three years on average and then stopped therapy.
“Our results show that early and prolonged cART may allow some individuals with a rather unfavourable background to achieve long-term infection control and may have important implications in the search for a functional HIV cure,” Asier Sáez-Cirión of Institut Pasteur in Paris and his co-authors concluded in this week’s issue of the journal PLoS Pathogens, published by the Public Library of Science.
Those who are functionally cured still have residual virus that is not completely eliminated but it doesn’t seem to impact their well-being.
The French researchers found no signs of sickness or growth of the virus in the patients, who are known as the Visconti cohort.
They suspect that the very early treatment may have limited the chance for viral reservoirs to form, which is why the vast majority of people infected with HIV need to continue treatment.