HIV virus (yellow), infecting a human cell. Credit: ZEISS Microscopy.

US researchers have conducted a study that challenges the ‘shock and kill’ approach to treating HIV, suggesting new treatment strategies are needed.

The viral disease is currently considered incurable because of latently infected cells that host the dormant virus after treatment.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Premium Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Related Company Profiles

View all

The ‘shock and kill’ approach is designed to use latency-reversing agents (LRAs) to shock the infected cells into generating HIV again, while antiretroviral therapy (ART) is maintained to prevent the occurrence of new infections.

This reactivation of the virus allows the ART to directly or indirectly kill the shocked cells.

The team from Buck Institute for Research on Aging conducted a study to investigate the reason behind the ineffectiveness of existing LRAs.

“Together, these results indicate that while ‘shock and kill’ might be helpful in reactivating and possibly eliminating a small subset of highly reactivatable latent HIV genomes, other approaches are necessary.”

They created a new dual-fluorescence HIV-1 reporter virus called HIVGKO to explore how well different LRAs responded to infection in latent cells. Less than 5% of latently infected cells were reactivated by these agents.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Using sequencing analysis on reactivatable and non-reactivatable HIV infection, the researchers found that the reactivatable virus sites are distinguishable from those that do not respond to LRAs.

Buck Institute for Research on Aging president and CEO Eric Verdin said: “Together, these results indicate that while ‘shock and kill’ might be helpful in reactivating and possibly eliminating a small subset of highly reactivatable latent HIV genomes, other approaches will be necessary to control or eliminate the less readily reactivatable population identified both here and in patients.”

Verdin added that such a cell population must potentially be ‘blocked and locked’ with latency-promoting agents.