Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Updated : June 4, 2014 6:38 PM IST
A baby in the US may have become the second ever baby to have been cured of the dreaded HIV after doctors failed to find any sign of virus in the baby's system. Announcing the breakthrough at an AIDS conference in Boston, experts said they used similar principles to the one used for the infamous Mississippi baby which was the first one to have been completely cured of the virus. The first baby is now three-and-a-half years old and completely cured of the virus according to a report in The Independent.
According to reports, the baby was born with HIV in Los Angeles last April and the doctors in California followed the Mississippi baby's example and began treatment within 30 hours after birth. While the LA baby is still receiving HIV medication, a range of tests at multiple times have shown no trace of the infection. The LA baby is still receiving a three-drug cocktail whereas the Mississippi baby ceased to receive anti-retroviral treatments two years ago. Both babies were born to mothers infected with HIV.
While both cases have given scientists a sense of optimism and it's believed that early, aggressive use of anti-retroviral therapies improved the children's health, they believe a lot more research needs to be done. HIV surfaced about 30 years ago and infects around 34 million people world every year. The current anti-HIV/AIDS measures generally include prevention like condoms and anti-retroviral drugs to control the disease and prevent it from turning into AIDS. This has helped in turn to control the ailment to a certain degree.
Read more about causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of hiv/aids.
The almost-there HIV 'cures' till date
Neutralising antibodies
CAPRISA, the Centre for AIDS Programme of Research announced that it has discovered potential antibodies that might be capable of neutralising and destroying multiple HIV strains. The South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that research showed how a South African woman's body responded to her HIV infection by making potent antibodies. The study which has been published in the journal Nature describes how the team found and identified the antibodies in her blood and then duplicated them by cloning the antibodies in lab. Motsoaledi said that the cloned antibodies were then used in a series of experiments in the laboratory to elucidate the pathway followed by her immune system to make these potent antibodies. Read more...
Gene therapy
A radical gene therapy to combat HIV using genetically modified cells, which are resistant to the virus, has been declared a success by scientists after its first clinical trial. The treaHIV-curetment, which has never been tested on humans before, raised patients' defences against HIV by replacing some of their natural immune cells with GM versions, the Guardian reported. Tests on people enrolled in the trial found that the disease-resistant cells multiplied in their bodies. Read more...
Other possible HIV cures
Should we be optimistic or cautious? This isn't the first time that we've been presented with tales that an HIV cure is on its way. The most famous of them are:
The Berlin Patient Case Leukaemia
For a long time researchers believed there was no cure. Even five years ago, a scientist who wanted to work on HIV cure research was laughed at. But all that changed with Timothy Brown aka the Berlin Patient. Brown an HIV-positive man who developed leukaemia. After first-line cancer treatments failed, a bone marrow transplant procedure was done. Two transplants later, not only was his leukaemia in remission, his immune system actually managed to ward off HIV. Brown no longer takes antiretroviral drugs or tests positive for HIV. Essentially, he was cured. Read more
Bee venom to cure HIV?
A study suggested that bee venom might have the potency to kill the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine had demonstrated that a toxin called melittin which is found in bee venom is the reason for this. The researchers used nanoparticle technology to target the virus. Particles smaller than HIV were infused with bee venom and since HIV cells are smaller than normal body cells the nanoparticles only targeted HIV.
'Melittin on the nanoparticles fuses with the viral envelope,' said research instructor Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD. 'The melittin forms little pore-like attack complexes and ruptures the envelope, stripping it off the virus.' Adding, 'We are attacking an inherent physical property of HIV. Theoretically, there isn't any way for the virus to adapt to that. The virus has to have a protective coat, a double-layered membrane that covers the virus.'
Stem cell therapy to overcome HIV?
In a path-breaking breakthrough two American were believed to have overcome HIV after undergoing stem-cell therapy! The news has met with widespread elation with experts believing that a cure might be on the cards. Doctors from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston announced on Wednesday night that two previously HIV-positive patients no longer had detectable virus levels in their blood or tissue after having bone marrow stem-cell transplants to treat cancer between two and four years ago, the Age reported. (Read more )
Aggressive antiretroviral treatment the Mississippi baby case
There were reports in March 2013 of a toddler who was completely cured of the virus after being born of it. She has been cured of the disease after following an aggressive regime of drugs. This was the second documented case of a person being completely cured of the virus after an adult known as the Berlin Patient was cured as a result of bone-marrow transplant. This startling piece of information was discovered when the baby's mother stopped treatment and doctors lost track of the baby who was given a bout of heavy drugs (current procedure suggests only a modest daily dose of antiretroviral treatment) about 30 hours after she was born at a rural Mississippi hospital, doctors said at a medical meeting in Atlanta. However, a doctor poured cold water on cold water on what was termed 'the greatest medical breakthrough of the century'.
In his piece, Dr Siedner pointed out in his column, exposure to HIV doesn't mean that the baby will have HIV. 'We will likely never know if those cells were from the child or maternal cell that has been transmitted during pregnancy or birth.' When a child is born, he or she has some maternal cells in his system so it's impossible to tell whether the child actually had HIV or not, or the tests detected the maternal HIV positive cells.
The MX2 gene
According to a study published in the journal Nature, scientists have discovered a new gene which can inhibit the HIV virus from spreading after it has entered the body. The study was led by Dr Caroline Goujon and Professor Mike Malim at the Department of Infectious Diseases, King's College London. It was conducted by introducing the virus to two separate lines of human cells. On one line, they introduced the MX2 gene along with the virus, while on the other they didn't. The line on which the MX2 gene was introduced, it was seen that the virus had stopped replicating. (Read more.)
What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV/AIDS is a disease that affects the human immune system. AIDS is the final stage of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. If an HIV positive person is left untreated, his/her condition deteriorates into full-blown AIDS where the immune system stops working. Thus the immune system is unable to protect the person from diseases or infections. The virus can be transmitted from an HIV positive person through the exchange of body fluids. This can happen through sexual contact, blood transfusion, needles or from a mother to child during pregnancy. Though there is no cure yet, antiretroviral treatment has proven to be very effective. Read: HIV - causes, symptoms, treatment and more...
With inputs from IANS
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