A new study suggests a class of drugs already being tested in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer may also hold the key to complete eradication of HIV.

Share on Pinterest Researchers used a class of drugs called Smac mimetics to reawaken latent HIV in cells of patients treated with antiretroviral drugs, allowing suppression of the virus.

In the journal Cell Host & Microbe, a team led by researchers from the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) in La Jolla, CA, reveals how drugs called Smac mimetics suppress dormant HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) cells among patients treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART).

ART is a combination of at least three antiretroviral drugs that slows the progression of HIV. While the treatment has led to significant reductions in death rates from HIV around the globe, the search continues for a way to eliminate the disease once and for all.

Antiretroviral drugs work by preventing HIV cells from multiplying, reducing levels of the virus in the body and giving the immune system the opportunity to stave off other infections.

However, HIV is never completely eradicated in patients treated with ART; the virus can lay dormant in cells, escaping detection by the immune system.

“If you take people off their antiretroviral therapies, some of these dormant cells reawaken to make more virus and re-establish disease,” explains lead study author Lars Pache, PhD. “The key for a cure for HIV is to purge these cells that have dormant HIV.”

This type of strategy is referred to as a “shock-and-kill” approach, but although it is a method that has been widely investigated by researchers in recent years, it has yet to see success.

Pache and colleagues explain this is because candidate drugs used to reawaken dormant HIV – such as latency reversing agents (LRAs) – are not potent enough or can trigger immune system overactivity, which can be deadly.