A widely-used cancer drug that works on the immune system could push HIV out of hiding, potentially leaving the virus open to being attacked and eliminated, according to promising results from a small new study.
showing immunotherapies like pembrolizumab might flush HIV out of immune cells in people with HIV – because although they have an increased risk of developing cancer, people with HIV in need of anti-PD1 treatments for their cancer are very rare.
The drug"did not eradicate HIV in this study" but the result"informs efforts to manipulate T cells to cure HIV," medical oncologist and lead author Thomas Uldrick of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research CenterBloods were collected from the 32 participants before and after treatment with pembrolizumab, and the samples were analyzed to see how much of the virus's genetic material was detectable in immune cells and blood plasma.
Six treatment cycles later, T cells containing HIV that was ready to replicate were also more often detected in some participants.More research is needed to figure out exactly how anti-PD1 drugs like pembrolizumab modify the immune response and act on HIV-specific T cells.
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