AHF joins breakthrough research for HIV control

A study published in Science yesterday, reveals what could be the key to why some HIV/AIDS patients' immune systems keep the disease at bay without medication. An international research team led by investigators from the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard and from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard described finding that differences in five amino acids in a protein called HLA-B are associated with whether or not HIV-infected individuals can control viral levels with their immune system only. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) was a collaborator on the study.

“This is an important discovery in the fight against HIV. At AHF, we feel that it is our moral obligation toward our patients and all the people infected with HIV to help the 'bench-scientists' achieve such breakthroughs”

The breakthrough research found that tiny variants in a protein that alerts the immune system to the presence of infection may underlie the rare ability of some individuals to control HIV infection without the need for medications. The research could provide a very important clue to understanding—and possibly replicating—an effective immune response against HIV.

"This is an important discovery in the fight against HIV. At AHF, we feel that it is our moral obligation toward our patients and all the people infected with HIV to help the 'bench-scientists' achieve such breakthroughs," said Homayoon Khanlou, M.D., Chief of Medicine, USA, for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "It is only through collaborative research that those of us in the HIV/AIDS fight will be able to overcome the obstacles to worldwide HIV control and eventually eradicate the disease."

According to a press release announcing the report's publication: "It has been known for almost two decades that a small minority - about one in 300 - of individuals infected with HIV are naturally able to suppress viral replication with their immune system, keeping viral load at extremely low levels. To identify genetic differences that may underlie this rare ability, Florencia Pereyra, MD, at the Ragon Institute established the International HIV Controllers Study (http://www.hivcontrollers.org/) in 2006, with a goal of enrolling 1,000 HIV controllers from medical clinics and research institutes around the world. That goal was expanded to 2,000 controllers in 2008, and thus far over 1,500 controllers have been enrolled."

Bruce Walker, MD, director of the Ragon Institute is a co-senior author of the Science along with Paul de Bakker, PhD, of the Broad Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Under the leadership of Pereyra, more than 300 investigators at over 200 institutions around the world contributed to the Science study.