6 most effective studies in HIV/AIDS treatment

(Baonghean.vn) - ThoseIn the 80s of the last century, when the first case in the world was recognized as a patient with HIV, this virus had become a death sentence for the patient.

To prevent and eradicate the disease of the century HIV/AIDS, scientists around the world are working hard to find specific treatments for patients infected with this disease. Let's look back at some of their achievements over the years:

1. Condoms prevent HIV even if torn

The new condom will help protect against HIV even if it breaks.

This is a study by scientists from the Texas A&M Health Science Center. This unique project was quickly noticed and invested in by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of billionaire Bill Gates. The head of this research project, Dr. Mahua Choudhury, said that this new generation condom will make people more active in using it and reduce the spread of HIV.

What's special is that this condom is not made from rubber. Because many people are allergic to rubber, scientists have found hydrogel, a material derived mainly from water, with good durability and elasticity to replace it.

Inside this condom is an antioxidant called quercetin (a plant intermediate metabolite), which has the ability to fight viruses and prevent the activity of carcinogens. More specifically, this substance can prevent the HIV virus. Therefore, if this condom is torn, quercetin will help prevent the HIV virus from being able to penetrate and infect.

2. USB for HIV test results in 30 minutes

The device promises to be revolutionary.

Recently, a team of scientists from Imperial College, London and biotechnology company DNA Electronics have successfully developed an extremely compact HIV testing device. It can be plugged into your computer like a USB, and gives test results within 30 minutes.

Researchers claim that this “USB stick” can detect viruses in just a drop of blood. A computer or smartphone can be used to read the data and give test results.

The entire process from drawing blood to receiving results takes just a few minutes, rather than the hours it would take to visit a clinic, make an appointment, draw a sample, and wait for results. In the study, scientists tested nearly 1,000 blood samples with an accuracy rate of up to 95%. The average time for each test was less than 21 minutes.

This allows rapid and effective diagnostic tests to be performed anywhere, including in remote areas that are difficult to reach with modern healthcare systems.

3. Successful experiment to isolate HIV virus

A team of researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University has successfully removed the HIV-1 gene from the genomes of mice and rats.

With gene editing technology, science is helping humans get closer to a cure for the disease of the century HIV/AIDS.

The successful results of experiments on mice have opened up hope for the medical industry that one day not far away, gene editing technology can also completely eliminate deadly viruses in humans.

In the experiment, the researchers first infected rats with HIV DNA, then conducted an ex vivo experiment. The purpose of this experiment was to “isolate the HIV-1 DNA integrated into the host genome.” This experiment allowed the complete removal of the viral DNA from the genome. Two weeks after the experiment, the team tested the DNA of the sample and found no HIV DNA.

“The ability of the rAAV delivery system to target HIV-1-containing organs and edit DNA is an important demonstration that this therapy can suppress HIV in potentially infected cells, and has the potential to become a specific therapy for HIV-infected patients,” said Dr. Khalili.

4. Italy researches HIV/AIDS vaccine in South Africa

The HIV/AIDS research team of the Italian Institute of Advanced Health (ISS), headed by scientist Barbara Ensoli, will coordinate with the South African Ministry of Health to continue the second phase of testing for this vaccine.

ISS Director Enrico Garaci said that after trials in Italy, the TAT vaccine has shown signs of being "a promising tool to improve immune function in HIV-infected patients." In November 2010, Italian researchers announced preliminary results of a phase II trial, showing that the TAT vaccine worked.

Ensoli, who has been working on the vaccine for 10 years, said that 48 weeks after the vaccine was given to volunteers, "their indicators are still improving, and the team has found a way to stop the destruction of the immune system." Ensoli's second phase of testing began in late 2008 with 128 HIV-infected patients aged 18-25 (both men and women) at 11 centers in Italy.

Monitoring of all Italian volunteers showed that 100% responded to the vaccine by producing specific antibodies. The TAT vaccine seeks to block infection, prevent replication of infected cells and may be effective against all variants of the HIV virus.

5. Eliminating HIV with umbilical cord blood transfusion

The question of HIV/AIDS - the disease of the century that affects the lives of 34 million people worldwide - seems to have been answered. Because recently, doctors in Barcelona (Spain) confirmed that they can cure this disease.

In an unexpected way, the HIV virus can be eliminated. The method they used is a blood transfusion from the umbilical cord of a person with a gene resistant to HIV. With this method, experts believe the virus can be completely eliminated.

Test results 3 months later showed that the HIV virus was completely eliminated from the patient's body. Illustrative photo

And in fact, they have achieved surprising results with a special patient. That is a 37-year-old man living in Barcelona. This person has been infected with HIV since 2009, and is now completely cured.

To achieve this result, the team of experts focused on a technique that had been applied to Timothy Brown - a German HIV patient with leukemia in 2007. Brown received a bone marrow transplant from a donor by doctors at a Berlin hospital to completely cure the terrible leukemia. However, this person accidentally carried a gene that resisted HIV, and when the cancer ended, the HIV virus completely disappeared.

According to experts, the CCR5 Delta 35 mutant gene affects proteins in white blood cells, thereby helping the body to have the ability to resist HIV. It is estimated that only 1% of the world's population carries the CCR5 Delta 35 gene.

6. Found a group of children completely immune to HIV/AIDS

There exists a mechanism in nature that prevents AIDS from developing.

Scientists analyzed blood samples from 170 HIV-infected children from South Africa, and none of them showed signs of developing AIDS. Tests showed that each milliliter of their blood contained 10,000 HIV viruses. Normally, such a large number of viruses would overwhelm the immune system and make an infected person sick, but these children were completely fine.

“Their immune systems are delaying any attack on the HIV virus until now,” says Professor Philip Goulder, an HIV researcher at Oxford University. And it is precisely because the immune system is not attacking the virus that AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency) cannot form.

One of the things we've learned from this research is that HIV disease is not about the HIV virus itself, but about the immune system's response to the virus.

This immune defense mechanism exists almost exclusively in children. The adult immune system tends to launch an all-out attack to eliminate the HIV virus, and in almost all cases, our immune system will fail.

Professor Goulder believes that finding immunity to HIV in these children could help us find ways to rebalance the immune systems in HIV patients.

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