Here is an article dated 12/1/22 titled: World

Here is an article dated 12/1/22 titled:

World day against AIDS

In 2021 HIV killed 650,000 people, 15% minors

According to data from UNAIDS, in 2021, 5.79% fewer people contracted the infection than the previous year, although "we are not on the way to eradicating AIDS." The functional cure of the disease is closer

Here is part of the article which discusses Dr. Sacha's work.

Functional cure through gene therapy closer

US researchers are evaluating the safety and efficacy of a single injection of gene therapy in non-human primates that could cause the body to permanently produce its own antiretroviral treatment. This would avoid the need for chronic medication that the 38.4 million people living in the world today have with the virus that causes AIDS.

Currently, antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the standard treatment for people living with HIV. It consists of a combination of drugs that limits the multiplication of the virus in the blood, the ultimate goal of which is to reduce the viral load to an undetectable level, which prevents transmission and would eventually end the HIV and AIDS pandemic. However, it is not curative and must be maintained chronically.

Now a new preclinical study from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) is set to test the potential of an experimental drug, the leronlimab monoclonal antibody, given as gene therapy to prevent 38.4 million people who, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), live in the world with HIV have to take antiviral drugs daily throughout their lives.

Using these gene therapy techniques, the researchers seek to introduce genetic material into the body of the infected person that allows the individual to permanently synthesize their own leronlimab, a promising project that would tackle eventual difficulties in adherence to ART, but results still uncertain and not without risk.

As a step prior to human trials, the initial research will evaluate its safety and efficacy in non-human primates infected with the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) — related to HIV, which causes AIDS — and will be funded with up to $5 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“This grant will fund the development and initial study of leronlimab as a potential single-shot gene therapy,” said Jonah Sacha, principal investigator, professor at the Institute for Vaccines and Gene Therapy and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, both centers attached to OHSU, in a statement.

"If this approach works as expected, it could provide a functional cure for HIV, which means it could suppress it enough that patients no longer need to take daily antiviral medication for the rest of their lives," added this specialist in medical microbiology and immunology, who is also a scientific adviser to CytoDyn, the biotech company focused on precision and personalized medicine that is developing the drug.

“By curing we understand that you do not have to take medication for life and that the virus in the blood is undetectable so that it cannot be transmitted,” explains Martínez-Picado. "We talk about functional cure when your immune system is capable of controlling the replication of the virus or eradication, when we manage to completely eliminate the virus from the body," he adds.

https://elpais.bo/reportajes/20221201_en-2021...kP_i_114OY