New drug shows promise of HIV cure

The drug will finish off the virus in its latent hiding stage among the infected.

A cheap drug developed in the US has shown promise of curing the deadly Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that infects cells of the human immune system.

The drug developed by David Margolis and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US, will finish off the virus in its latent hiding stage among infected people, reports the online edition of New Scientist.

HIV is already being kept in check by treatment with a powerful cocktail of drugs known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). But the virus persists in a dormant state in infected people. The new drug will now eliminate that possibility.

Four patients who had been on long-term HAART treatment were given a drug called enfurvitide twice daily for four to six weeks to intensify the effect of the HAART drugs. They were then given valproic acid, a drug which is usually used to treat epilepsy, twice daily for three months.

Valproic acid inhibits an enzyme called histone deacetylase, which is known to help HIV linger in its dormant, hidden state. In three of the four patients, levels of latent HIV fell by 75 per cent, the report said.

"Our findings suggest that eradication of established HIV infection may be achieved in a staged approach," said Margolis. "This finding, though not definitive, suggests that new approaches will allow the cure of HIV in the future."

Around 40 million adults and children are believed to be infected with HIV worldwide. The life expectancy has fallen to below 33 years in some of the worst-hit countries in Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland due to the disease, according to a report in science portal EurekAlert.