Asier Sáez-Cirión, head of the unit “Viral reservoirs and immune control at the Institut Pasteur”, coordinated the study published in the Revue Med, on April 28.
Why are patients permanently in remission after HIV infection, despite the interruption of their treatment, when the majority of patients are forced to be treated for life? How do they control the virus?
In a study published this Monday, April 28 in the journal Med, the researcher ASIER Sáez-Cirión, head of the viral reservoir unit and immune control at the Institut Pasteur, confirms the results of a field of research open for years.
After a HIV infection, most patients have no choice: they should never interrupt their antiretroviral treatment under penalty of a “rebond viral rapide”, “Mainly due to the persistence of viral tanks” In the organization, recalls the Institut Pasteur.
What happens to the “Post-treatment controllers”these a few hundred people who recalls the Pasteur Institute, “manage to maintain an undetectable viral load even after stopping treatment” ?
-“A crucial step towards sustainable remission”
The study funded by the Anrs emerging infectious diseases (ANRS MIE) shows that they have “Special immune genetic characteristics”. Asier Sáez-Cirión has been working on the subject for years. In a previous study, Visconti, published in 2013, he is already interested in these “post-treatment controllers”. He identified with them “Genetic characteristics associated with cells of innate immunity”the “Natural Killer”.
It was these markers that were found in a retrospective study on the Primo cohort, with 1600 participants, in whom they seem “Promote sustainable HIV remission”as long as patients received early treatment after an infection.
Coordinated by Asier Sáez-Ciriri, The study was conducted by “Researchers from the Pasteur Institute, Inserm and AP-HP”.
A clinical trial, launched two years ago, will have to permanently validate the hypothesis.
Selon Asier Sáez-Cirion, “This discovery represents a crucial step in the continuation of the lasting remission of HIV infection. In a context where the access programs to antiretrovirals are strongly threatened, new therapies that will allow people living with HIV to lead a normal life without having to take treatment even more necessary and urgent”he concludes.
