Gene therapy - New weapon to treat HIV / AIDS

Research results of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, showed that gene therapy can become a new weapon in the treatment of HIV / AIDS century disease.

However, the scientific community recommends it will take many years to apply this treatment widely.

According to Dr. Pablo Tebas, co-chair of this study, current HIV / AIDS drugs allow patients to live relatively normally. However, they cause many side effects and in some cases, patients become resistant to the drug.

Therefore, the question is whether there is a way to treat or control HIV / AIDS virus to a degree that patients do not have to use the above expensive and complex drugs.

AIDS patients have hope to be saved in the future thanks to new methods.(Artwork: AFP / VNA)

In their study, Dr. Tebas and his colleagues performed the isolation of immune cells from HIV / AIDS patients, correcting these cells and transplanting them back into the patients' bodies and they did not treatment with medication.

Scientists found that the number of HIV / AIDS viruses in these subjects was lower than expected. Even in a deadly virus, this person disappears completely.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania say they will continue to study the treatment because they are currently not able to explain why this happened, nor did they know that this treatment works. How long does it take for immune cells to last long?

However, they believe this is a significant finding because thousands of HIV / AIDS patients are now completely resistant to existing treatment drugs.

Meanwhile, a leading expert in the field of HIV infection / AIDS Bryan William of the South African Center for Epidemiological Analysis and Modeling affirmed that the world can prevent the global HIV / AIDS epidemic in In the next 40 years, by widely using anti-retroviral preparations, a drug will not only slow down the progress of the disease but also significantly reduce the risk of spreading the disease.

Speaking on February 22, William stressed that if using these products, within five years could prevent the spread of HIV / AIDS, after 10 years will reduce the number of patients involved in tuberculosis. HIV / AIDS and after 40 years can completely eliminate these 2 infections.

According to expert Bryan William, when using anti-retroviral drugs, the density of HIV / AIDS virus in the blood is reduced by 10,000 times, enough to reduce the risk of infection 25 times.

According to William, the main obstacle in this strategy is funding for a free drug delivery program because patients need to use drugs daily and lifelong.

In South Africa, one of the regions with the highest HIV / AIDS incidence in the world, to implement this project needs 4 billion USD / year.

However, he said that this cost will bring about benefits, because reducing the number of people infected with this deadly disease will help reduce the costs of treating diseases caused by HIV / AIDS and reduce the number people who lost their labor.