HEALTH GOSSIP: Secret Weapon Revealed on 'Why There is No Effective Cure or Vaccine Yet Against HIV/AIDS'

Medical experts found a new discovery about the frustrating secret of HIV which could be a reason why an effective and functional cure or vaccine has been very difficult to make. HIV particles can hide dormant inside infected cells which may cause re-occurrence after a successful anti-retro viral drug therapy. 

HIV SECRET WEAPON

If experts have several set of prospective on HIV cure or vaccine, the virus has a defence mechanism to prevent freedom against itself. For several years, medical science investigated how the AIDS-causing virus works, survives and infects immune cells but a recent discovery revealed the ultimate power of HIV.

Cell journal was a three-year study and recently published, revealing a shocking truth regarding the secret weapon used by HIV to protect itself from extinction and ensure victory against medical treatments.

"We've known about the latent reservoir for many years now. What we didn't realise until this study is it might be larger than previously estimated. It's a little bit scary," according Janet D. Siliciano of John Hopkins University School of Medicine, a microbiologist and one of the lead authors of the published paper, quoted by Online Athens.

Infectious disease experts at the John Hopkins University found the amount of dormant forms of HIV hiding inside infected T-cells can actually be 60 times greater than previous study and these dormant viruses have the potential to become active.

EFFECTS ON THE CREATION OF A CURE or VACCINE

Current models or drugs under clinical trials may have not included this recent discovery, hence the creation of an effective cure or vaccine against HIV may get another setback. HIV reservoirs inside infected cells may cause reinfection if Antiretroviral Drug Therapy (ART) is stopped or interrupted which creates new copies of HIV reservoirs to hide again - repeating cycle over and over.

"These results indicate an increased barrier to cure, as all intact noninduced proviruses need to be eradicated. Although cure of HIV infection may be achievable in special situations, the elimination of the latent reservoir is a major problem and it is unclear how long it will take to find a way to do this," Siliciano said.

But the medical researcher didn't take the blow as hopeless on the creation of a functional treatment but rather took it as challenge since science always have wanted to understand the virus more.

"I don't think it's discouraging. Our approach has always been to try to understand the latent reservoir. Everything that we're doing just gives us more information about the reservoir and about the mechanisms of latency. I think the more we learn about what works and doesn't work helps us go forward," positive aim from Siliciano.

HIV features several unique traits such as high-mutable genetic code, ability to destroy immune cells, causes almost zero initial symptoms and now can hide from plain side by saving reservoirs inside infected cells.

New information such as this frustrates researchers but new details means new knowledge to find the weakness of HIV and strengthen the development of an effective cure against it.

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