Could an experimental injection offer hope for HIV patients? Patient who has the killer virus keeps it at bay for 10 months after treatment

The US military findings offer yet more hope for potential treatments in future
Results were presented at the annual meeting of the International Aids Society
However, none of the other patients saw such profound effects, experts said
The unnamed patient was treated with ‘broadly neutralising antibodies

A HIV patient had the killer virus kept under control for 10 months after he was given an experimental injection.

The findings offer yet more hope for potential treatments in future, amid an array of other trials published this week with similar results.

Scientists tested the effects of ‘broadly neutralising antibodies’ on a small study of 18 people – including the unidentified man.

None of the other participants saw such profound effects, only having their virus halted for around two weeks.

US military researchers presented the results at the ninth annual meeting of the International Aids Society in Paris.

It comes after the groundbreaking case of a nine-year-old boy virtually cured of HIV, and the ‘new revolution’ of injections, were also revealed at the conference.

The findings offer yet more hope for potential HIV treatments in future, amid an array of other trials with similar results

All of the volunteers in the US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) study had already been controlling their virus with standard drugs.

Treatment was then stopped completely in some of the patients. Others were given a blood infusion of the VRC01 antibody.

What did they find?

Those who scrapped taking their antiretroviral drugs, currently used to control the virus, saw their virus return in around two weeks.

But the trial, conducted in Thailand, noted that those who received the antibody had around 26 clear days before it came back.

Those who received the antibody infusion were given it every three weeks for six months, the researchers said.

The treatment has some ‘impact’

Dr Jintanat Ananworanich, one of the researchers, said that more research is needed to test the antibody’s potential – but it has some ‘impact’.

She told BBC News: ‘[The patient] has been off treatment for around 10 months and has so far controlled the virus to very low levels.’

‘It suggests there’s some impact from the antibody, but how the antibody actually impacts the virus and the immune system – that’s an on-going investigation.

THE BOY WITH HIV WHO WAS CURED

A nine-year-old child has been virtually cured of HIV, scientists claimed earlier this week.

The youngster got the infection from their mother and began a year’s treatment at nine weeks old.

But for the last eight and a half years the child, now nearly ten, has been drug-free.

The child – whose name and gender was not identified – was born in South Africa and given a short burst of drugs immediately afterwards.

They have since been off treatment for eight and a half years without showing any symptoms or signs of the active virus.

Scientists hope the case will help improve their understanding of HIV and pave the way for new drugs or vaccines which can cure the infection.

‘I do think antibody therapy has potential because the antibody, in the future, could perhaps be given just two or three times a year.’

Dr Michael Brady, medical director of Terrence Higgins Trust, told MailOnline: ‘We’ve known for a long time that effective – or “neutralising” – antibodies are key to the body being able to control, or even eradicate, HIV.

‘The challenge has been to learn how to stimulate them effectively for use as HIV treatment or prevention.

‘This case is interesting and will add to our knowledge about the interaction between HIV and the immune system.’

How the antibody works

VRC01, which has previously been shown to stop up to 90 per cent of HIV strains from infecting human cells, was discovered in 2010.

It works by blocking the virus from binding to a part of the virus called the CD4 binding site – stopping it from attaching to immune cells.

Researchers deemed it to be the biggest leap in the field of HIV research at the time – until the promising discovery of another antibody, called N6, in November.

More than 200 broadly neutralising antibodies, which humans are inefficient in making, have been documented in the quest for HIV treatment.

Previous animals studies have hinted they could work better than antiretroviral drugs which are taken daily to stop the virus from weakening their immune system.

HIV: The facts

An estimated 36.7 million adults and children worldwide have HIV, including at least 88,800 in the UK and reportedly 1.2 million in the US.

The virus progressively damages the cells in the immune system weakening the body’s ability to fight infections.

Without treatment, this leads to AIDs – the collective name for a series of life-threatening infections which the weakened immune system cannot withstand.