November 26, 2013 Print
A worldwide research push to discover how HIV hides dormant in the human body may soon lead to a curative treatment for the virus which results in AIDS. The deputy director of the Centre for Virus Research at the Westmead Millennium Institute (WMI) in Sydney, Associate Professor Sarah Palmer, says such a cure might be found within the next 10 to 20 years.
A worldwide research push to discover how HIV hides dormant in the human body may soon lead to a curative treatment for the virus which results in AIDS. The deputy director of the Centre for Virus Research at the Westmead Millennium Institute (WMI) in Sydney, Associate Professor Sarah Palmer, says such a cure might be found within the next 10 to 20 years.
Palmer, who joined the WMI this year after building a global reputation as a HIV researcher while in Sweden and the
United States, says researchers around the world are trying to work out which cells “hold on to” HIV and allow the
virus to persist during effective therapy.
Speaking in the lead up to World AIDS Day on December 1, Associate Professor Palmer said her team of
researchers is trying to understand the genetic characteristics and dynamics of persistent HIV across a range of
tissues and cells.
“We are looking particularly closely at different tissue sites such as the gut and lymph nodes where it is thought 90
per cent of the dormant infected T-cells reside,” said Associate Professor Palmer.
“HIV inserts its DNA into the body’s T-cells and can sit in a resting phase in the human body for years before the Tcells are woken up to fight another disease.
“Once they wake up and replicate, they also produce HIV – and this happens time and time again in HIV patients.”
“The T-cells are the fuse that ignites the ticking time bomb and we want to know exactly which kinds of T-cells are
likely to “explode” into the full-blown disease.”
Research conducted by Associate Professor Palmer and Swedish colleagues – published today in the PNAS
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) journal - shows that early commencement of regular anti-viral
chemotherapy results in fewer hidden HIV-infected cells.
The preliminary data findings of the paper, assisted Associate Professor Palmer in receiving a $873,416 National
Health and Medical Council grant (reference APP1061681), to conduct further research into characterising latent
HIV.
“When a person is infected with HIV they must begin lifelong therapy because the virus always persists and is never
cured. Unfortunately we don’t know all the sites and all the cells in the body where the virus is hiding during therapy.
“We also don’t know if there are some patients whose genetic make-up means their cells hide less of the latent virus
during therapy.
“If we can pinpoint the infected cells more precisely and then wake them up from their dormancy, we can then work
on ways to purge the virus from these cells.”
Palmer says current therapies for HIV do not offer a cure although they can significantly prolong the lifespan of the
person infected.
She is concerned that the relative success of current treatments has led to some apathy amongst the community,
resulting in a rise in unsafe sex and a consequent minor upswing in HIV infections.
“People think “oh the medical profession can treat HIV now” but the reality is most treatment involves long term
chemotherapy, not cure and sometimes it can even make the patient sick.”
“These treatments aren’t really very satisfactory and it’s my dream to be able to find a properly curative treatment for
the disease.
Associate Professor Palmer was inspired to pursue HIV research by a visit to Kenya in 1991, where large numbers
of children and young people were dying from the disease.
“Once I saw what was happening in Kenya I said this can’t continue and I have to do something about it.”
She says that, globally, there is now a lot of hope that a cure can be found.
“We are at the beginning stages of a push towards that cure and I’m very happy to be part of such an exceptional
team of medical researchers at the WMI and across the globe as we try for more breakthroughs.”