In journal Annals of Oncology today, researchers led by Professor, in Paris, France, report that while treating an HIV-infected lung cancer patient with the cancer drug nivolumab, they observed a "drastic and persistent decrease" in the reservoirs of cells in the body where the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is able to hide away from attack by anti-retroviral therapy. These reservoirs of HIV-infected cells are found in the immune system in organs such as the brain, bone marrow and genital tract.
They lie dormant and cannot be eliminated by anti-retroviral therapy, nor by the weakened immune system so that if treatment is stopped at any time, the virus starts to replicate and infect more cells again, while the immune system cannot suppress this rebound of HIV infection. If scientists could find a way of clearing away the reservoirs of HIV-infected cells, then it might enable them to…
