Researchers have found that a drug used to treat cancer can eliminate dormant HIV from the cells of people living with the virus. The drug in question is pembrolizumab, developed by US drugmaker MSD, also known as Merck.
Published in scientific journal Science Translational Medicinethe study on the possible treatment against HIV latency had the participation of researchers from different countries, such as the United States and Canada.
According to the authors, pembrolizumab was able to reverse the latency process of HIV in cells from people with cancer who were also undergoing antiretroviral treatments.
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Understand the action of the remedy
It is worth explaining that, with the use of appropriate drugs for HIV, a person manages to control the viral load of the infectious agent and this prevents the development of AIDS, but the virus remains “hidden” in the body. This is the latency state.
“In people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy, the virus persists in a latent form, where there is minimal transcription or protein expression. Latently infected cells are a major barrier to curing HIV,” the study authors detail. After all, the virus is only controlled and never eliminated.
Effect of pembrolizumab
To identify the action of pembrolizumab, the research recruited 32 volunteers living with HIV and also diagnosed with cancer. Of the total number of participants, 29 (91%) had an undetectable viral load and three (9%) had a viral level above the detection limit.
After eight days of the first cycle with the drug, the amount of viral RNA fragments detected increased 1.32 times in the volunteers. This means that the medication was able to eliminate the dormant virus from inside the cells. After 22 days, the number was 1.6 times higher than the initial one.
The advantage of this process is that the body’s defense cells can only identify latent HIV after it has been “expelled” from within the cells. Without it, he could remain “hidden” for years. Now, with the discovery via the immune system, it can finally be eliminated.
However, this discovery does not make the drug an immediate therapy against latent HIV. “Further studies are needed to assess the dose and frequency of anti-PD-1 treatment required for latency reversal,” the researchers explain. Among the points, it is necessary to understand how effective is the expulsion of the dormant virus from infected cells.
