Barriers to HIV cure research

In the search for a cure for HIV, certain obstacles have stood in the way of medical and scientific researchers. On the other hand, nothing worth having is obtained without working for it, right? Well, the first hurdle is quite simple: even if an HIV-infected person has been “cured” of HIV (a functional cure, for example), how do we know that the person in question is free of HIV? After all, HIV could still lie dormant in the body at very small levels (less than 1 in 1 million CD4 cells) and possibly return at some point in the future.

What the Berlin Patient has taught us is that if you get a functional cure, like the one that cured the Berlin Patient of his HIV infection, then it won’t really matter if HIV remains in the body at incredibly small levels. The amounts would be too small to find using the current technology at our disposal. Making the decision to stop antiretroviral therapy (ART) depends on whether HIV has actually been eradicated or not, because as we already know, if ART is stopped before HIV is eradicated, it will replicate and flourish as soon as it has the opportunity.

In the end, research only goes as far as funding allows, which is why adequate funding for HIV/AIDS research is so important. In 2009, the US government spent 3% of its $1.5 billion HIV/AIDS research budget working to find a cure. That figure amounts to $45 million, a fairly paltry sum. Supporters of HIV/AIDS cure research estimate that recommended funding should be closer to $200 million. As a result, nonprofit organizations have stepped up to fill the funding gap with major research grants; however, more money is needed.

The most basic antiretroviral therapy regimen costs a minimum of $20,000 per year, a sum that is out of reach for most people in developed countries, let alone in poorer developing countries without good access to these. medicines. A treatment like the stem cell transplant that cured the Berlin Patient could cost $200,000. As technology improves, these therapies will become cheaper, but that may not be for a decade or more. In the meantime, the work continues with the money that is currently going towards the cause. Finding a cure for HIV will be a great achievement, but until the research hurdles are resolved and adequate funding becomes available, the cure itself will remain elusive.