Abbott study identifies people with controlled HIV

The discovery is the result of Abbott’s continued virus hunting efforts, which also discovered a new strain of HIV in 2019

Abbott today announced that a team of scientists has found an unusually high number of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who test positive for HIV antibodies, but have low to undetectable viral loads – without the use of antiretrovirals. treatment.^[1] These people are called elite HIV controllers. These groundbreaking findings, published today in EBioMedicine (part of The Lancet), may help researchers uncover biological trends in this population that could lead to advances in HIV treatments – and potentially vaccines.

Researchers from Abbott, Johns Hopkins University, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, University of Missouri – Kansas City, and Protestant University in Congo found that the prevalence of disease controllers HIV elite was 2.7-4.3% in DRC – compared to a prevalence of 0.1-2% globally. This new research will fuel further studies aimed at understanding this unique immune response. The results of the study could lead researchers to move closer to their goal of ending the HIV pandemic by finding links between natural suppression of the virus and future treatments.

“The discovery of a large group of elite HIV controllers in the DRC is significant given that HIV is a lifelong chronic disease that typically progresses over time,” said Tom Quinn, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, and head of the International HIV / AIDS Research Section of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, and one of the study authors. “There were rare cases of infection not progressing in individuals prior to this study, but this high frequency is unusual and suggests that something physiologically interesting is happening in the DRC that is not random. . “

Since the start of the global HIV epidemic, 76 million people have been infected with HIV and 38 million people are now living with the virus.^[2] As the first company to develop an FDA-approved HIV test over 30 years ago, Abbott understands the importance of HIV research and has established its global viral surveillance program to identify mutations in the virus. HIV and Hepatitis – ensuring its diagnostic tests stay up to date. Since the origins of the HIV epidemic can be traced back to sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the DRC, this region is of particular interest to the scientific community.^{[3, 4]} These new discoveries from Abbott researchers and partners are a continuation of the virus hunting efforts that led to the identification of a new strain of HIV in 2019.

“Global surveillance work keeps us one step ahead of emerging infectious diseases – and in this case, we realized we had found something that could be another step towards unlocking a cure for the disease. HIV, ”said Michael Berg, Ph.D., associate researcher in infectious disease research at Abbott and lead author of the study. “The global research community has more work to do – but taking what we learn from this study and sharing it with other researchers brings us closer to new treatments that have the potential to eliminate HIV.”

Plasma samples from surveillance efforts collected in 1987, 2001-03 and 2017-19 in the DRC – which harbor the oldest known strains of HIV – allowed researchers to rule out false positives, through the website. collection, high genetic diversity, and antiretroviral therapy as the cause of undetectable viral counts in 10,457 patients from 2017 to 2019. Abbott’s ARCHITECT HIV Ag / Ab Combo Assays and m2000 RealTime HIV-1 Assays were used in the study to detect anti-HIV antibodies and viral load ranges, respectively, in participants.

“Each new HIV discovery is another piece of the evolutionary puzzle that we are trying to figure out,” said Carole McArthur, Ph.D., MD, professor in the Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, University of Missouri – Kansas City, director of research residency in pathology, Truman Medical Center, and one of the study authors. “Each of these pieces helps us see a little more clearly where we need to look next and contributes to the knowledge bank that all researchers will turn to in the next phase of our work.”

Over twenty-five years of virus hunting around the world

As a leader in blood screening and infectious disease testing, Abbott established its global viral surveillance program more than 25 years ago to monitor HIV and hepatitis viruses and identify mutations, which helps to ensure that the company’s diagnostic tests stay up to date. The surveillance program continues to be a collaborative avenue, enabling researchers to proactively assess and resolve infectious disease challenges.

Abbott’s emerging virus surveillance and discovery work has enabled the company to respond quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Abbott will redouble its efforts to identify, track and prevent future pandemics linked to many types of infectious diseases.

1. A high prevalence of elite potential HIV controllers identified over 30 years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, EBioMedicine.
2. Global Health Observatory (GHO) data: HIV / AIDS. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/hiv-aids.
3. Worobey M, Gemmel M, Teuwen DE, et al. Direct proof of the great diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa in 1960. Nature, 2008; 455 (7213): 661-664.
4. Faira NR, Rambaut A, Suchard MA et al. Epidemiology of HIV. The early spread and epidemic inflammation of HIV-1 in human populations. Science. 2014; 346 (6205): 56-61.

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