Researchers in Australia have made a scientific breakthrough which could unlock the cure to HIV. A team of researchers, led by Dr. Marc Pellegrini from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, successfully cured an HIV-like infection from mice by boosting the function of cells vital to their immune system with a drug they have nicknamed IL-7.
“I think this is the first real ray of light that gives us hope that (HIV) is curable,” Pelligrini told the Star Observer. “We’ve shown for the first time that (IL-7) actually does clear a very chronic and overwhelming infection in mice, which we think is translatable to HIV, hep B, hep C and perhaps other infections.”
The finding relates to the use of the body’s immune system to fight back at viruses, rather than an antiretroviral drug approach to clearing the body of HIV infection, according to Pelligrini. “One of the problems with our current antiretroviral therapies is that there are obviously latent reservoirs of virus which hide away and aren’t really exposed to the antiretroviral,” he said. “So whenever you stop the antiretrovirals the virus will immediately come back.”
The findings, published in the recent online journal, Cell, have been cautiously welcomed by the medical community. If successful, an HIV cure might still be more than 10 years away.
Honestly 10 years is too far away, we need faster. A cure will be available within next 5 years is crucial………………………………..God bless all the scientists with wisdom and knowledge how to come out with the cure……Amen.