Waking the HIV virus: Alcoholism drug a ‘game changer’

Alfred researchers, together with the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the University of California San Francisco, USA, have found the drug, Disulfiram is capable of ‘waking up' hidden HIV in the body with no toxic effects.

Current suppressive antiretroviral therapies (ART) limit HIV from replicating and stabilise patients with HIV however they do not eradicate the virus, which remains hidden in the DNA of some white blood cells.

Finding drugs to lure HIV out of infected cells with minimal side-effects has been a key strategy for HIV researchers.

In research released in The Lancet HIV overnight, increasing doses of Disulfiram was given to 30 people with HIV for three days. When given at the highest dose, evidence emerged that dormant HIV ‘woke up' with virtually no adverse effects.

First author on the paper, and The Alfred's Head of Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases, Dr Julian Elliott said waking up dormant-HIV with a drug with few side effects is a major step forward.

"This trial demonstrates that Disulfiram is safe to use and can be taken daily. It is possibly the game changer we need but we still have an enormous amount to learn about how to ultimately eradicate the virus," Dr Elliot said.

The leader of the international study team, and Doherty Institute Director, Professor Sharon Lewin said the next step is to get these activated HIV cells to die.

"Waking up the virus safely in people living with HIV is only the first step to eliminating it," Prof Lewin said.

Dr Elliott indicated that the results from the study will now inform the design of further research to find a way to cure HIV.