If a new medical strategy works, it might be possible to find a cure for the dreaded HIV virus. A team of researchers from the University of North Carolina, after a study on HIV-positive patients, has said that valproic acid, which is used in the treatment of bipolar disorder, might be helpful in activating dormant HIV virus in the body and eliminating it. As of now, the medications available for HIV act only during the multiplication of the virus.
Valproic acid retards the action of the enzyme histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), which helps the HIV virus survive in the body in the persistent state. “Our findings suggest that eradication of established HIV infection might be achieved in a staged approach. Patients should perhaps first be treated with standard antiretroviral regimens at an early stage of infection. For those in whom viral replication is suppressed, latent viral infection could then be tackled with HDAC inhibitors, intensified therapy, or both,” said Dr David Margolis, lead author of the study.
Under the study, researchers took a group of four HIV positive people who were undergoing the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and administered enfuvirtide to them. Enfuvirtide restricts the entry of the HIV virus into healthy cells for almost six weeks. Later, this group was given valproic acid (valproate) for a period of three months. An analysis showed a 75 per cent decrease in latent HIV infection in three of the four patients when they were on valproate.
“This finding, though not definitive, suggests that new approaches will allow the cure of HIV in the future. This is a baby step, but it's a significant conceptual move forward,” ," Dr Margolis added.
However, further research needs to be conducted before the efficacy of the treatment is established. Dr Jean-Pierre Routy of McGill University Health Center in Montreal, in an opinion piece published along side the research report in
The Lancet, said the concept should be studied further on an urgent basis. “This is the first glimpse of a new therapeutic approach that might represent a possible step towards making HIV infection no longer a chronic disease,” he said.
Meanwhile, the findings evoked mixed reactions from experts. While Dr Chris Gadd, of Aidsmap, a UK body advising patients on HIV treatment, hailed the study as an ‘encouraging message’, Dr Robert Siliciano of Johns Hopkins University was less confident the idea would work. “It assumes something about the mechanism which we don't know is true,” Dr Siliciano said.
