Nov 25, 2020
In addition to
HIV prevention, one of the biggest topics for
HIV research is finding a cure. While antivirals are able to
control and suppress the virus, it’s still able to keep its
foothold in infected subjects. This podcast talks to one researcher
who's helped scientists understand that persistence.
Listen and learn
Matt Gartner is a research
officer with Subbarao Group, researching common
infectious diseases. His PhD work focused on
infectious diseases microbiology, most specifically HIV. Like
many infectious viruses, after the transmission of HIV, the virus
usually undergoes a latent period.
However, the latent period has a couple of mysterious
characteristics. Dr. Gartner studied the ability of HIV to
establish a strong latent reservoir, which allows the virus to
persist in people even if they're on antivirals. He explored two
questions in his work: how does HIV establish this reservoir and
how is this reservoir being maintained even under antiviral retro
therapy.
His research found very little
signs of virus evolution, suggesting the antiviral drugs are good
at blocking replication. But they found a large percentage of
sequences in the patient that were identical, which has important
implications: this points to a proliferation of immune cells
copying the same strain.
Dr. Gartner thinks that a patient's immune response helps the
reservoir expand when it responds and replicates to attack a
specific pathogen. As it replicates, it produces clones of the HIV
retrovirus. While this means "any particular cure strategy will be
very difficult to carry out," he discusses one that has potential
called the "shock and kill" strategy. Listen in for more about this
theory and other details on HIV infection mechanisms.
For more about his work, he
suggests searching PubMed and ResearchGate.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK