Virus pulverizing drug raises hope for HIV cure
Sopuruchi Onwuka
A potential medicine which is hoped to pulverize the human immune-virus (HIV) genome into non-functionality will soon be introduced in human volunteers to attempt disabling the dreaded virus that has killed millions and sickened even more victims.
The potential one-dose treatment to functionally cure HIV is billed be tested in human trials is expected to work on the HIV genome and stop it from mutating in the body.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States had in September granted the drug developer, Excision Biotherapeutics, approval to start testing their HIV treatment known as EBT-101 in volunteers with HIV.
The pharmaceutical technology from which the medicine was developed was discovered at Temple University in Philadelphia; and it uses gene editing to cut out pieces of the human deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA to deactivate the viral genome.
The Chief Executive Officer of Excision Biotherapeutics, Daniel Dornbusch, explained the technology makes multiple cuts on the viral genome after it was determined that the virus could mutate around a single cut.
The company stated that the the treatment would come in the form of a single intravenous dose over one to two hours.
If the trial succeeds, the medicine would be the first ever cure for HIV which is currently managed with antiretroviral therapy (ART) which entails taking multiple medications every day.
In Excision’s trial, participants will continue taking ART for three months after getting their dose of EBT-101, and then go off the drug.
Researchers have already found EBT-101 to be effective in cutting out portions of the HIV genome in prior trials in non-human primates and lab-isolated human cells; hoping that the first human trial would establish that the treatment is safe and effective.
Dornbusch stated that the first human trial of the drug would test the possibility of world’s first functional therapeutic cure for HIV.
‘Functional cure’ the company explains is a very important definition in the experiment, adding that there would be no way currently available to determine if EBT-101 would be able to achieve a ‘sterilizing cure’ which entails removing every viral genome from an individual.
“However, sterilizing cures are not necessary, as the goal of the therapy will be for individuals to remain HIV negative by RNA testing, maintain normal levels of immune cells, and cease taking antiretroviral treatment — achieving a functional cure,” he explained.
Along with Excision’s treatment, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are also currently running human trials on HIV vaccines to prevent the virus.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine could only achieve 25.2 percent protection in its first round of trials, missing the goal of reducing the risk infection by 50 percent.
Our survey of journals on Moderna’s trial did not yield any result of ongoing trials, but the indication of success by Johnson & Johnson shows a clear pathway to success.
