An important step towards finding treatment for the HIV seems to have been doing researchers at Australiaas they first managed to “get” the virus from its “hideout” in human cells, using technology mrna.

HIV’s ability to remain inactive in specific white blood cells is the key challenge for eliminating it. The virus creates a kind of “warehouse” in the body that neither the immune system nor the existing drugs can eliminate.

Now, according to the Guardianscientists from Peter Doherty Institute For infections and immunity In Melbourne they published a survey in Nature Communicationspresenting a new method that “reveals” the virus, paving the way for its possible eradication from the human body.

MRNA transfer to ‘inaccessible’ cells

The new technology is based on MRNA, which became widely known in the Covid -9 pandemic through the vaccines of Pfizer/biontech and Moderna. However, to date it was extremely difficult to introduce mRNA into these white blood cells (memory cells) where HIV is hidden.

Researchers managed to overcome this obstacle by creating a new guy lipid nanoparticine (LNP)named Lnp xthat these cells can absorb. Through this, mRNA reaches the interior of the cells and “obliges” them to reveal the presence of the virus.

OR Dr. Paula Cevaallead researcher, said the first results in the lab were so impressive that the team repeated them many times to assure.

“When the first results were presented, we couldn’t believe them. Next week we repeated them – and it was just as well. He cut our breath, “he said.

To clinical application – but not yet

The study was carried out in HIV patients in the laboratory. The route to the use of the method in humans is still long: it will be needed first animal tests, then clinical safety tests in humans and, if all goes well, efficiency tests.

Cevaal admits that in medical research many techniques never reach the clinical application. “This does not mean that we have yet to find the cure. But as far as the field of HIV treatment is concerned, we never had such encouraging results for the revelation of the virus, “he noted.

According to her details UNAIDSnearly 40 million people now live with HIV worldwide, and in 2023 a death was recorded every minute by complications of the virus. Although existing drugs effectively control its development, they do not lead to healing.

THE Dr. Michael Rocheco-author of the study, he estimated that this technology could be applied to other diseases, such as some forms of cancer, as the same cells-T cells play a role in them.

The challenges remaining

THE Dr. Jonathan stoye by the Francis Crick Institute (who did not participate in the study) described the new approach as “significant progress” in relation to other methods for activating the latent HIV. He warned, however, that the difficult part remains the complete extermination of the virus:

“We still do not know if it is enough to remove 90% of the virus warehouse or if the whole has to be eliminated. This will only show this time, “he noted.

For his part, the professor Tomáš Hanke From the University of Oxford he expressed reservations, stating that the idea of ​​full access to all cells where HIV is hidden is “utopian”.