[brijnbhatt]

A restore to health for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could in a little while become reality, according to a new study. Using a groundbreaking therapy method involving so-called radioimmunotherapy (RIT), have successfully eliminated remaining HIV-infected cells in blood samples taken from patients treated with antiretroviral therapy. The findings light up an effective drug mechanism that could allow researchers to eliminate the AIDS-causing virus for good.
It was found that radioimmunotherapy could kill HIV-infected cells both in blood samples that received antiretroviral treatment and within the central nervous system, demonstrating RIT offers real potential for being developed into an HIV cure.
A new study suggests targeting HIV with radioimmunotherapy could eradicate HIV from infected cells. If given in conjunction with highly active antiretroviral therapy, it may form the basis of a cure.
In radioimmunotherapy (RIT), which has been used for a while to treat cancer, antibodies charged with radioactive isotopes target and destroy cancer cells.
The antibody selects the particular type of cancer cell and the attached radioisotope delivers a lethal dose of radiation that kills the target cell, while leaving untargeted (healthy) cells unharmed.
Even though highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) kills human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the bloodstream, it does not completely eliminate it from the body because the virus can linger in infected cells and replicate. Although there has been enormous progress in HIV treatments that slow progression to AIDS, the search for a permanent cure continues and to combat HIV, we need a method that will completely eliminate all HIV-infected cells without damaging non-infected cells.

The results till date showed that RIT targeted and killed HAART-treated lymphocytes - types of white blood cells - and in most samples, reduced HIV infection to undetectable levels. Current antiretrovirals do not cross the blood-brain barrier very well, which is why so many HIV patients treated with HAART often have severe mental impairment.