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WASHINGTON: The race to end AIDS has picked up momentum as scientific advances now offer new hope of halting the spread of the disease 30 years after the epidemic surfaced.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is well known to attack the body's natural defences, but it has proven such a wily foe over the past three decades because of the way it transforms, replicates and hides inside the body.
Scientists are learning more about how the virus infiltrates cells, and how to harness the body's own natural defences to guard against it in the hope of closing in on new vaccines, strong prevention treatments and possibly, a cure.
"We have seen the light at the end of the tunnel," said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a longtime leader in the fight to end AIDS.
15 antibodies found
According to Seth Berkley, president of the International Aids Vaccine Initiative, the "last two years have been the most exciting" because researchers have made the "biggest advances" in vaccines and preventions.
High on the list is work on broadly neutralising antibodies, potent antibodies made by about 10-20% of people who are simply born with better natural defences against HIV.
Scientists have now isolated 15 of these antibodies, and they are working backward to find ways to force the human immune system to produce them. When two are combined, they have been shown to block 90% of known HIV strains.
"The idea is if we could identify a strategy for the human host to be tricked into making broadly neutralising antibodies, that is a huge step toward making a vaccine," said Myron Cohen, a leading AIDS researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Reducing HIV infections
The use of drug therapy as a way to prevent HIV transmission has also gathered steam with a series of important clinical trials.
In early May, a global study of mainly heterosexual couples found a 96% lower risk of transmission to the uninfected person when antiretroviral therapy (ART) was started before the illness advanced in the sick partner.
In November 2010, a landmark study across four continents showed that a daily dose of an oral antiretroviral pill, Truvada, reduced the number of HIV infections among sexually active gay men by 44%. The study focused mainly on men who have sex with men, and found that those who faithfully took the pill on 90% or more of days had a 73% lower infection rate.
