A DRUG THAT FLUSHES OUT HIV

The issue with long term HIV
treatment is drug resistance, side effects and the high cost of medications. As
more health care providers and both poz and negative people view HIV as a
lifelong, but treatable illness, much of the focus has been on controlling the
virus within the body.

Like cancer, we are accustomed to thinking of a cure for HIV as both improbable
and impossible. We hear the words "cannot be cured" over and again
until the idea of eradication becomes a distant wish we only hope will come
true by the end of our lifetime.

The issue isn't with overall pessimism or the science community's lack of
progress. Quite the opposite is true. A number of significant advances have
been made, especially in the last few years. What has prevented a cure is HIV's
ability to not only mutate cells, but hide in the body. HIV plays a viral game
of hide and seek. And like the childhood game, you can't tag what you cannot
find. Knowing this, researchers attempt new strategies to help prolong HIV patient
survival in the form of current antiretroviral therapies while they look for
the convert cells. These therapies control viral levels, but don't eradicate
the virus.

This may soon change with new findings from a team of researchers at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that give new hope to the battle
for a cure. Researchers found that the biological mechanism that keep HIV
cloaked can be targeted with the use of the oncology drug, vorinostat.

According to the study, vorinostat attacks the enzymes that keep HIV hiding in
certain CD4+ T cells.These are the cells that HIV uses to replicate.
Within hours of being given vorinostat, six clinical trial patients had a
significant increase in HIV RNA in these cells. The study's author, professor
of medicine, microbiology and immunology, and epidemiology Dr.David Margolis,
says this is evidence that the virus was being forced out of its hiding. The
results were presented March 8 at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and
Opportunistic Infections in Seattle, Washington. 

More study is needed, but if the drug proves viable it could shed light on
HIV's resting place. Once there, science can turn from defense to offense and
work to eradicate the virus completely.

SOURCE: GAY LIFE