HIV: Despite Treatment, Virus Silently Grows Still

Despite numerous treatments, new findings published in the journal EBioMedicine show that HIV is continuing to grow in some patients who are thought to be responding well to treatment.

"This research shows that sadly, the HIV virus has found yet another way to escape our treatments," Anna Marie Geretti, who led the study, said in a statement. "We always knew HIV is difficult to suppress completely and that it hides inside CD4 cells, but we always hoped that as the body gradually renews its CD4 cells that the hidden HIV would die out.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool discovered that during treatments, the virus hides in blood cells that are responsible for the patient's immune response, which occurs when the virus inserts its own genetic information into the DNA of the blood cells, known as CD4 T Lymphocytes.

Anti-retroviral therapy is typically given to HIV patients to prevent production of the new virus, which also prevents the infection and death of CD4 T Lymphocytes, and thus, the disease from progressing further.

During the study, researchers measured levels of integrated HIV in the CD4 cells of patients who underwent interrupted treatment for up to 14 years while comparing them to patients who received treatment for different lengths of time.

However, findings revealed that integrated levels of HIV in CD4 cells didn't reduce over the 14-year period.

"The good news is that we did not see any worsening over time, but the bad news is that these findings really cast doubt over whether HIV can be 'cured' by increasing immune cell responses against it -- a strategy that now looks like it will eventually fail," Geretti added.

While significant advances have shown that anti-retroviral therapy over the past 30 years has resulted in many patients living with undetectable levels of the virus in the body, the study suggests that the virus can still surface in those who are responding well to treatments.

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