HIV/AIDS: could disarming be the cure?

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV ) is a
lentivirus (a subgroup of retrovirus ) that causes HIV infection and over time acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). AIDS is a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and
cancers to thrive. Without treatment, average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype. In most cases, HIV is a sexually transmitted infection and occurs by contact with or transfer of blood , pre-ejaculate ,
semen , and vaginal fluids . Non-sexual transmission can occur from an infected mother to her infant through breast milk.
An HIV-positive mother can transmit HIV to her baby both during pregnancy and childbirth due to exposure to her blood or vaginal fluid. Within these bodily fluids, HIV is present as both free virus particles and virus within infected immune cells.

STATISTICS

HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed more than 35 million lives so far. In 2016, 1.0 million people died from HIV-related causes globally.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) targets the immune system and weakens people's defence systems against infections and some types of cancer. As the virus destroys and impairs the function of immune cells, infected individuals gradually become immunodeficient. Immune function is typically measured by CD4 cell count.
Immunodeficiency results in increased susceptibility to a wide range of infections, cancers and other diseases that people with healthy immune systems can fight off.

THE GOOD NEWS

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There's been a positive development in finding a solution to this deadly disease. A group of researchers led by scientists at
Imperial College London and Johns Hopkins University developed a new way to combat the disease: instead of killing the virus, make the body resistant to it.

When a person is infected, the body’s innate immune system provides an immediate but flawed defense; HIV takes its membrane or “skin” from the cell that it infects. During the experiment conducted by these scientists, HIV was exposed by removing cholesterol from this cellular wall, producing a large hole in the virus’s membrane and making it permeable, which in turn led to a stronger adaptive response, orchestrated by immune cells.

Removing the cholesterol from HIV cells means the innate immune system would not over-react, allowing the adaptive cells to form a proper and specialized cell to fight off the HIV pathogen.

HOW WAS THIS ACHIEVED?

They removed the cholesterol by injecting various concentrations of beta-cyclodextrin (bCD) into the cell, which causes the cholesterol deposits to bind together. Once they extracted that bit, the cell was then essentially left with a gaping hole and became inoperable because it could not stimulate pDC cells. A point to note is the fact that cholesterol in HIV cells is not the same as the one associated with clogged arteries and heart problems.

Dr. Adriano Boasso, an immunologist and research fellow at Imperial College London, gave further explanation. In his words:

keeping the body's first-responder immune cells quiet could have some benefits — the whole system may not burn out so quickly, and could potentially fight off HIV.
"Think of the immune system as a car. HIV forces the car to stay in first gear, and if you do that too long, the engine is not going to last very long," he said in an interview. "But if we take the cholesterol away, HIV is not capable of attacking the immune system quite as well. Practically, what we've done is turn HIV into a normal jump-start of a car."
Viruses replicate by invading cells and hijacking their machinery, which they use to churn out new copies of their genetic material. Among the repurposed material is cholesterol, which is important in maintaining cellular fluidity, something viruses require to interact with other cells. (This is not related to the way everyone thinks of cholesterol, which is cholesterol in the blood. That type of cholesterol, made of high-density and low-density lipoproteins, is related to heart disease, not HIV and AIDS.)
HIV quickly activates plasmacytoid dendritic cells, or pDCs, which are the first immune cells that respond to the virus. PDCs produce molecules called interferons, which both interfere with the virus' replication and also switch on adaptive immune cells, like T cells. Boasso and other researchers believe this hyperactivation weakens the secondary immune system, undermining the body's ability to respond.
But in a new study, Boasso and colleagues show that removing the cholesterol changes HIV, so that it cannot activate the pDCs like it normally would. By preventing these first responder cells from turning on in the first place, the secondary responders — the T cells — can organize a more effective counterassault.
"Modifying the virus affects the way the immune system sees it," Boasso said. He said it's like removing the weapons from HIV's arsenal: "By removing cholesterol, we can turn those little soldiers into an armorless enemy, which can be recognized by the opponent's army."

While researchers have lengths to go before they can even think to announce a cure for HIV, this breakthrough could drastically reduce the amount of resources devoted to treating and combating the disease and provide insight into fighting similarly complex diseases in the future.

References:

Wikipedia

World health organization(WHO)

https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/disarming-hiv-could-protect-immune-system-and-potentially-lead-vaccine

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/scientists-successfully-disarm-hiv-virus.446472/

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