Detecting drugs that treat lung cancer can kill HIV cells

Doctors at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital AP-HP Hospital in Paris (France) have discovered the first evidence that a drug used for treatment, kidneys and skin can kill HIV-infected cells. in AIDS patients.

In the study, a male patient, 51 years old, was diagnosed with HIV positive since 1995 and diagnosed with lung cancer since May 2015, has been using nivolumab - by Bristol-Myers Squibb. sold as Opdivo .

A drug used to treat lung, kidney and skin cancer can kill HIV-infected cells.

The results of HIV-containing cell drives "plummeted and continued" without the use of basic treatment drugs. The patient has received 31 doses of nivolumab every 2 weeks since December 2016. After the first injection, the level of HIV infection increased continuously until the 45th day, then decreased. Doctors explain how the immune system's activity has increased. By the 120th day, the treatment results showed that the HIV drive had fallen sharply.

The case was reported in Annals of Oncology, in which doctors also reported that a similar study had been applied in another patient using Opdivo but had no effect on HIV.

Dr. Jean-Philippe Spano, professor - Chairman of the Department of Cancer Medicine at the hospital, said "it still needs to be very careful, because this is only a single case" but he added that this is the case The first shows a strong decrease in HIV drive . For his part, the infectious disease expert of Cardiff University (England), Andrew Freedman, said the findings "were very encouraging ", but still need to be cautious.

For years, scientists have tried to find ways to remove HIV drives with the desire to completely eliminate the virus and cure it for AIDS patients. The United Nations Joint Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) said that global work in the past 15 years has made tremendous progress, recording 57% of cases treated. The challenge now is to make 16 million untreated patients, including about 919,000 children, able to access treatments as soon as possible.