HIV Treatment News: New Drug Confirmed to Weaken Virus for 28 Days

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A new approach in HIV therapy treatment has shown promise in its first human study.

The first phase of the clinical trial at The Rockefeller University involving a single fusion of an anti-HIV antibody, called 3BNC117, reportedly showed to have reduced the HIV levels of HIV-infected study participants for 28 days, reports Yahoo News.

The study was published in the international journal of science, Nature. The approach makes use of clones of immune proteins taken from an individual whose body has natural control of HIV. According to The Verge, only 1 people of the people infected with HIV produce have this rare antibody.

Before the 3BNC117 antibody was tested in humans, its laboratory tests showed that it can neutralize diverse HIV strains and protect mice and macaques from the disease.

To test the safety and effectiveness of the drugs on humans, participants were injected with various doses of the antibody. There were 29 people in all, with 17 who were HIV-positive and 12 who did not have the disease.

The BBC reported that even though people have the natural capacity to defend the system against the virus through their body's natural protein based antibodies, the majority are unable to defeat it on their own.

It was through these findings that the international research team gathered the most potent antibodies and cloned it. The patients given large doses of the antibodies were protected from the virus for some time by slowing down the growth of HIV in their blood.

The effects varied; in some patients, it lasted for a few weeks while the virus in the others was able to change structure over time because of its ability to mutate rapidly. The scientists suggested combining the treatment with other treatment drugs to overcome this.

The antibody did not actually create any significant difference for people who produce the antibody naturally. "People have looked at whether patients who develop a very good antibody response against HIV if they do better, and that seems to not be the case," said Florian Klein, co-author of the study and an immunologist at New York Rockefeller University. The problem lies in the nature of antibodies that develop slowly, whereas the virus mutates quickly enough to avoid detection from the antibodies.

"The virus is able to change the sequence of its envelope protein" - the part of the virus that the antibody detects - "quite rapidly," Klein says.

When a high concentration of the antibodies is injected into HIV-infected people, the virus seems to be affected. Its effects are still unclear. "The virus is able to change the sequence of its envelope protein" - the part of the virus that the antibody detects - "quite rapidly," Klein adds.

The clinical antibody treatment testing is promising although it needs further testing and research. "And with the clinical data that we gain over the next few years, we will hopefully be able to use this method to the benefit of HIV-infected patients," says Klein in an article by The Verge. So, "it's not ready to go on the market or anything but we have very promising results."