HIV cure research

April 13, 2026

When treating HIV, what are the drug targets and why?

What is the new drug target?

The drugs target the three enzymes because it prevents the virus from evolving to these drugs

• Integrase, protease, and reverse transcriptase

New: Binding to the GP120 which prevents the virus from being able to binding to CD4 so it can’t bind to the host cell

When treating HIV, when should doctors start prescribing drugs?

As soon as possible

• Need two tests: ELISA and Western Bolt

Needs to be done sooner to protect the immune system of the person

Drugs also prevent the patients from passing on the virus

What are the possible reasons for why HIV medication is prescribed?

1. Preserve the health of the patient

2. Prevents infection from being passed on

What is the best way to prevent HIV infection from being passed on?

Depends on the mode of transmission

• Sex: taking anti-HIV meds

  • These medications can be given to someone who is not infected but has been exposed to it

    • Ex: doctor experiences needlestick injury

  • Needs to be done within 24hrs

• Before/after exposure

• After infection to protect health

There was a study done where couples (one infected with HIV and the other not) where the partner without HIV was given anti-HIV drugs. Why did this study need to stop?

The reason why this study needed to stop was because it was working so well.

The couples in the positive control group (being given the medication) the meds were working so well, the it was considered unethical for the couples in the negative control group (without meds) to not be given the same options as the couples in the positive control group.

What are the 2 major reasons for prescribing HIV meds?

1. Health of the patient

2. Prevents new infections

When are antibody drugs for HIV prescribed?

How do they work?

These are best for patients that struggle to take the daily pill

You get an infusion (shot) of antibodies into blood (~ once a month) and these work just as well as the daily pills

What are the current barriers to curing HIV?

Latent reservoir (dormant cells)

• the immune system can’t detect an infected cell if the cell won’t produce foreign proteins so the immune system can’t kill it

• Taking medication when there are latent reservoirs won’t work because the medication is only helpful when the cells are actively making the foreign protein, since they are turned off, the medication won’t be useful.

How could we attack the latent reservoir?

We would need to either wake up all of the latent reservoirs or keep them asleep forever

• wake up: transcription

For those who are already cured of HIV, how did this happen?

Due to a mutation for the Ccr5 protein. The mutation caused a stop codon

• Makes a structural change that prevents the GP120 from being able to bind to it.

How was Timothy Brown cured of HIV?

Why do we think he was cured because of this?

So first he was cured of HIV, then he got leukemia which is believed to have helped keep him cured of HIV forever.

When treating for leukemia, you do radiation therapy and need a bone marrow transplant. He had a donor who had a similar bone marrow structure to him AND they also had a Ccr5 mutation. He stopped taking the HIV medications (after doc said to) and he was cured forever.

• The transplant of immune system of the T-helper cells that couldn’t be infected by HIV.

After learning about how Timothy Brown was cured, can we say that we can cure everyone with HIV?

Why or why not?

No.

• The procedure to do this would be extremely expensive (bone marrow transplant)

• You would need a donor thats a match and has the Ccr5 mutation

• Bone marrow transplant also kills 1/3 people

What are some cure strategies for HIV?

(Note: these are in the works)

Shock and kill

• Wake up the latent reservoir and kill the infected cells

• This is unlikely because it would need to be perfect in the way that all of the dormant cells are woken up. If one cell was left behind, it could lead back to HIV transcription and translation

• Also if we wake up all of the cells, we could kill the patient because the immune system would go into shock

CRISPR to edit T-helper cells

• We would take out the infect T-helper cells, use CRISPR to change the genes, then put the cells back in the infected patient

• Too expensive

Antibody treatment

• Control the infection with the immune system

CRISPR directly targeting HIV genes

• Adding stop codons before the HIV proteins mature

• Unlikely because it would need to be perfect with all genes modified. If one if left unmodified, it could lead back to HIV production.

CRISPR and membrane-like vessels

• HIV cells are near the lymph nodes. We would use CRISPR and standard drugs to target HIV

• This is done on humanized mice

  • Mice with cells similar to the human immune system

• Only cured 2/7 mice

Antibodies (super proteins)

• Antibody that keeps infection in check. Added something onto the antibody that binds to GP120. Create a super protein that codes for those virus. If the patient is able to produce those proteins, it can be considered functional cure.

• Inject with the patient with genes that produce this protein

What are two things that are needed to say a patient is cured of HIV?

1. One time treatment

2. HIV remains undetectable for rest of their life.