HIV Therapy

A large scale study has revealed that children between the ages of 3 and 16 fare better taking the HIV drug efavirenz than nevirapine. The study included over 800 HIV positive kids. The problem is that efavirenz, the more effective of the two drugs, is the less used drug in countries where the disease is most prominent. Unfortunately, most of those infected kids live in underdeveloped lands, and that is why they receive the inferior treatment.

Over 3 million kids around the globe have HIV, and more than 9 in 10 of those are found in sub-Saharan Africa, where government resources are limited. WHO is recommending both of the aforementioned drugs as a first attack on the disease when children are involved. This would involve a worldwide change in care, as efavirenz is far more expensive and less readily available than nevirapine.

The fact is that regardless of the cost, nevirapine gets better results in kids – thus it calls on agencies to assist in making the drug more readily available to underprivileged children who are infected with HIV in resource-limited nations. This process is already in effect with adults, who also react better to nevirapine.

Bulk orders for low resource countries may be the key to getting enough of the drugs to the right places at the right price. Non-government agencies are being called upon to assist in making this a more viable option for these millions of needy children.

The nation of Botswana is a fine example of a low-resource nation that has worked hard to provide better treatment options for citizens with HIV, by being involved in clinical studies. They have also provided a great deal of research on other diseases like tuberculosis. Thus, the nation has actually helped to improve health for not only their own citizens, but those of the entire world.

Researchers have found a way to make T cells that can keep HIV at bay in the laboratory – they achieved this by attaching HIV-resistant genes to existing T cells, the cells that are normally the main target of the disease when it reaches its later stages and begins to spread even more rapidly.

The gene used by HIV to enter the cells was isolated and altered to develop resistance within them to the disease – these minor alterations to the T cell can effectively prevent HIV from destroying the immune system and progressing to the AIDS stage.

Not only were the genes themselves affected but activation of a particular receptor in the T cell also occurred – the idea now is to use this process in the human body to create cells that resist HIV.

Those infected with HIV need to take several medications daily in order to avoid progression of the disease – if this gene therapy is to be developed into a viable substitute it will have to be tested, not just in a lab as thus far but clinically.

It is important to note that this is not a cure for HIV – a person given the modified T cells would still have the disease, but the inserted cells would simply halt the progression to prevent it from reaching the fatal AIDS stage. It could still be passed onto others.

The disease has always been tricky because it continues to change inside the body, hence the need for a combination of medications to keep it at bay. This study was part of an attempt to find the right combination of genetic modifications that could perform this process and alleviate the need for daily treatment.

There are two proteins within T cells that are known to be the locations at which the disease enters, and in fact some of the latest medications involve affecting this process. A very limited number of people have a gene that is already HIV resistant, thus preventing its spread throughout their bodies – this is another angle scientists have used to try and modify normal T cells and develop the same resistance within them.

The findings of this study were particularly significant and mark a large step in the right direction of fighting HIV through genetic research.