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Madrid, March 17 (EUROPA PRESS) .- HIV-positive patients will be able to change their usual treatment with the antiretroviral pill every day with an intramuscular injection once a month. The arrival of this new approach could take place "in a year or a year and a half" once approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), according to the head of the disease unit. infectious from the hospital. University of La Paz, José Ramón Arribas.
The expert participated this Friday in the presentation of the symposium "SI INDIVIHDUALITY", organized by the pharmaceutical company Janssen in Madrid, during which more than 250 experts will gather to badyze the latest advances in basic and clinical research on HIV / AIDS, which have been developed. presented a week ago at the world reference meeting in this area, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI).
Among the novelties revealed in this appointment, two trials have shown that an intramuscular injection of two drugs applied monthly is just as effective in controlling viral load of HIV as the most modern antiretroviral treatments, which they are administered daily by through a pill.
Both tests have already been presented to the European Regulatory Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), so that once their decision is made, they could be marketed in the future close.
"These delayed-release drugs represent a new goal of the first-generation new antiretrovirals, with less toxicity.At the next generation, it is even possible that the injection be done every two, four or six months, but what is waiting for us today is every month, "said Arribas.
The head of the HIV / AIDS Unit of the Barcelona Clinical Hospital, Josep Mallolas, felt that it would act as an "excellent tool" for HIV-positive patients, although "not for everyone because of their clinical situation". "For a large percentage of patients, the improvement will be important because they do not want to take pills every day," he said, pointing out that the choice or not depends on the patient's opinion .
New infections do not come down
On the other hand, Mallolas has made an badessment of the current situation in the fight against HIV. "We have two news: the interest lies in the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs, which have a high tolerance and produce an undetectable viral load, ie you can not transmit the virus." ", he said in the first place.
However, he regretted that, despite this progress and other advances, it is not possible to reduce the number of new infections per year, which is around 3,000 in Spain. "The numbers are similar to those of 10 years ago, we do not do something right," he said. In this regard, Arribas added that almost 25% of those infected in our country did not know it.
"It is not easy to diagnose them because the whole population should be tested.There are preventive measures, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which is not implemented in Spain but has has shown excellent results in Australia or Canada to reduce the number of new diagnoses, Spain is behind this aspect, "said the researcher at La Paz Hospital.
Towards the "cure" of HIV
Arribas highlighted another imminent need to fight HIV: a vaccine. In his opinion, it is "difficult" to control the current epidemic without this approach. "We do not have an effective vaccine, even though there is a lot of research going on, it would be a critical part of dominating the epidemic around the world, we have been trying to achieve that for many years and it continues to be our great scientific challenge, "he added.
The experts also had another outstanding task, although further away, the possibility of "curing" HIV. In this regard, the presentation of the symposium also involved Javier Martínez-Picado, professor-researcher at the Catalan Institute for Research and Higher Studies (ICREA) at Irsi Caixa and member of the research team that has managed the remission of the virus for a year and a half. without antiretroviral therapy.
The patient, originally from London, has undergone a stem cell transplant to treat lymphoma. The donor had a mutation (CCR5delta32) that prevented HIV from infecting cells with the virus. At 16 months, the doctors decided to stop antiretroviral therapy and now, 18 months later, HIV still does not reappear in their body.
This same approach, which badumes that the HIV-positive patient is also suffering from a hematological problem (such as lymphoma), is also used in several European countries and in three patients in Andalusia, Catalonia and Spain. from Madrid, according to Martínez-Picado. . "Nevertheless, it is important to note that there have been cases in which the virus took up to nine months to rebound after the interruption of treatment, so we must be very careful," did he declare.
According to the specialist, the scientific challenge is "healing". "For this, we need new therapeutic targets that can minimize the areas where the virus" is hiding "when it disappears from the body, we need to find molecules that" wake up "the virus so that the immune system can destroy them, "he concluded.
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