According to a study in monkeys, the viral reservoirs of AIDS set up within 3 days of infection. This even though HIV was undetectable in the blood of these animals.
The Mississippi girl in remission from AIDS several years after receiving antiretroviral therapy 30 hours after birth had raised much hope in the medical community. This case had indeed suggested that an antiretroviral-based treatment initiated very early could prevent the formation of viral reservoirs, these hiding places of HIV which allow it to remain inaccessible to treatment. Hopes were dashed since recent blood tests in early July 2014 revealed that the girl again had detectable levels of HIV in her blood. And once again, it is these virus reservoirs that seem to have been the major obstacle to the definitive elimination of HIV in this patient. It is in this context that a study published on Sunday in the scientific journal Nature reveals that these reservoirs of the virus settle very quickly in the body.
Reservoirs form in less than 3 days
Indeed, a team made up of researchers from Harvard Medical School (Boston) was able to deduce that the establishment of these virus reservoirs in rhesus macaques occurred less than three days after inoculation of the equivalent of HIV for monkeys. , SIV, while this virus was still undetectable in their blood. To reach this conclusion, 20 monkeys inoculated with the virus were put on antiretroviral treatment 3 days, 7 days, 10 days or even 14 days after the introduction of the virus. As a result, those treated just three days after infection did not develop the infection-specific immune response.
But the most interesting remains that in all of these monkeys discontinuation of treatment after 24 weeks was followed by resumption of viral infection. In the case of the monkeys treated very early, the reappearance of the virus took longer, but was systematically manifested, specify these scientists. According to them, this study corroborates recent developments in the case of the “baby from Mississippi”.
Another study led to similar results
However, this team recalls that there are “important differences between monkeys infected with SIV and humans infected with HIV”. But for Dan Barouch, one of the lead authors of the study, “The unfortunate clinical findings of viral rebound in the baby from Mississippi appear to be consistent with the data from these monkeys and pose a significant challenge to eradication efforts. HIV ”.
In conclusion, this researcher points out that another study, also conducted at Harvard, attempted to predict the effectiveness of new treatments against virus reservoirs. This also shows that the duration before the viral rebound is “very variable and can occur years after a remission”, he concludes. The results of this similar work have, for their part, been published in the American scientific journal PNAS (1).
(1) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
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