Institut Pasteur claims to have destroyed cells infected with HIV

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur announced Thursday that they have successfully destroyed cells infected with HIV. The study, published in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism does not yet show any treatment, but paves the way for the cure of all carriers of AIDS.

Today, AIDS treatment uses antiretrovirals, discovered in the 1990s and used to block the infection. The problem is that the drug does not eliminate HIV from the body. Patients should take this drug until the end of their life, because until now, no drug could destroy the virus present in immune cells, CD4 T cells.

The researchers understood that some lymphocytes were not infected with the virus and, to date, they did not understand why. In this study, they were able to identify the characteristics of lymphocytes that were more easily infected and that had a more favorable metabolic activity for spreading the virus.

Bulk Cell Activity

These cells have the particularity of consuming more glucose to produce energy. The experiments showed that the higher the metabolic activity, the higher the glucose uptake is important and hence the higher the risk of HIV infection is important.

The researchers then had the idea of ​​blocking the activity of these lymphocytes. When this happens, cells can resist infection and, after a while, HIV is eliminated. In the laboratory, inhibitors of metabolic activity, already used in cancer research, were used.

This study represents an important step in healing through the elimination of these cells.

"This is an interesting first step, but we are not in a situation where we are not in a situation where, this discovery can be used in humans in the near future. necessary and this publication brings more hope for the treatment of AIDS, "said Jean-Michel Molina, professor at the Saint Louis Hospital in Paris, in an interview with France Info .

Molina acknowledged that the study was a milestone in the search for curative treatment, but added that it should be remembered that the tests were conducted in the laboratory. "The cells were artificially infected, although some results were collected from patient samples, but you have to confirm all that, first in a lab and then with tests on humans," he said. did he declare.