A scientific team to determine how to get rid of cells stored for "HIV"

A team from the Pasteur Institute has identified a vulnerability in the "stored" cells of the AIDS virus, paving the way for the elimination of a study published in the journal Metabolism.

Current HIV treatments last a lifetime because they fail to eliminate virus stocks in immune cells.

The study's supervisor, Asir Sayes-Sirion, said that antiretroviral drugs disrupt viruses and act against them to suppress their proliferation but can not eliminate infected cells.

"Through our research, we have been able to identify infected cells to target them and rid the body of those infected with HIV," he said. The Pasteur team was able to identify the characteristics of T4 cells, immune cells that are the main target of HIV / AIDS. The study showed that the virus first affects cells with significant metabolic activity. This activity, especially glucose consumption of the cell, plays a key role in the infection: the virus "devours" the energy and production of the cell to multiply.

The need for this virus is a exploitable vulnerability to attack "stored" cells. The researchers were able to stop the infection through molecules mimicking metabolic activity, a method also used in the field of cancer.

He noted that the team had observed similarities between these cells and the cancer cells, allowing the same methods to be used, but had indicated that it was likely to wait several years before starting to experiment with these methods as part of of a third phase clinical trial showing efficacy. Discovery.