A promising strategy to create a “functional cure” for HIV infection by locking the virus in its dormant “off” state has garnered a $3.4 million, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health.
An estimated 41 million people globally live with HIV infection. For most, the infection is successfully suppressed to undetectable levels through daily antiretroviral therapy. But the virus never fully leaves the body, and it can reawaken within days if someone stops their medication.
“HIV persists in immune cells, even when people take their pills faithfully,” said Susana Valente, Ph.D., of The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, who leads the research. “The virus is silenced during antiretroviral therapy, but the moment treatment is interrupted, it wakes back up.”
Read more about New Grant Boosts Research Aimed at ‘Locking’ HIV.
