Muhammad Sameer
The Pioneer Pakistan – Friday, August 6, 2021
HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a chronic condition that affects millions of people around the world. While antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly improved the lives of those living with HIV, the virus can still grow silently in the body despite treatment.
ART works by suppressing the replication of the virus, reducing its ability to damage the immune system and allowing people living with HIV to live longer and healthier lives. However, even when ART successfully suppresses the virus to undetectable levels in the blood, HIV can still silently grow in other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes and gut-associated lymphoid tissue.
Recent studies have shown that HIV can persist in these reservoirs even after years of successful ART, and that these reservoirs can actively produce new virus particles, increasing the risk of viral rebound if treatment is interrupted or discontinued. This phenomenon, known as viral persistence, poses a significant challenge to achieving a cure for HIV.
One reason why HIV is able to persist in these reservoirs is that ART is unable to completely eliminate infected cells. While ART can stop the virus from replicating, it cannot eliminate the infected cells themselves. These cells can then continue to produce new virus particles, leading to ongoing viral replication and the establishment of long-lived viral reservoirs.
Another factor that contributes to viral persistence is the ability of HIV to mutate rapidly. HIV has a high mutation rate, which allows it to evolve and adapt to changing environments. This also means that the virus can develop resistance to antiretroviral drugs, making it more difficult to control.
While the persistence of HIV in the body despite treatment is a significant challenge, researchers are working to develop new strategies to target the viral reservoirs and achieve a cure for HIV. These strategies include the use of gene therapy to target and eliminate infected cells, as well as the development of new drugs that can penetrate the viral reservoirs and eliminate the virus.
In the meantime, it is important for people living with HIV to continue to adhere to their ART regimen, as this is the best way to prevent the virus from replicating and causing damage to the immune system. Regular monitoring of viral load and immune function is also important, as it can help identify any signs of viral rebound or treatment failure.
Casting doubts on finding a cure for HIV anytime soon, British researchers have found that the virus can grow ‘silently’ in patients who are thought to be responding well to treatment. Advances in anti-retroviral therapy given to HIV patients over the past 30 years mean that most patients can have their virus suppressed to almost undetectable levels and live a long and healthy life.
It had been thought that after many years of successful treatment, the body would naturally purge itself of the virus, said the study published in the journal ‘EbioMedicine’.”This research shows that sadly, the HIV virus has found yet another way to escape our treatments,” said lead researcher Anna Maria Geretti, professor at University of Liverpool. The researchers found that during treatment for HIV the virus hides in blood cells that are responsible for the patient’s immune response. The virus does this by inserting its own genetic information into the DNA of the blood cells, called CD4 Tlymphocytes.
The research demonstrates that whenever a CD4 cell multiplies to produce more cells, it copies itself and also copies the HIV genes. This process – a sort of silent HIV replication – means the virus does not need to copy itself, produce new virus particles, and infect new CD4 cells – but is automatically incorporated at the birth of the cell, the study noted.
In conclusion, while ART has greatly improved the lives of people living with HIV, the virus can still silently grow in the body despite treatment. This underscores the need for continued research into new strategies for targeting the viral reservoirs and achieving a cure for HIV. In the meantime, adherence to ART and regular monitoring of viral load and immune function remain crucial for managing the virus and preventing the development of drug resistance.