In another development in the medical community’s quest for years to cure AIDS, a group of researchers in New York has found that radiation therapy combined with antiretroviral therapy may be more effective in eradicating the disease.
On Dec. 3, 2013, at the 99th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Dadachova, professor of radiology, microbiology and immunology, reported on a study in which researchers used a radioimmunotherapy technique for treating leukemia to try to treat infected cells in the blood of 15 HIV-infected patients, showing that this approach cleared the blood of HIV infected cells, and in an animal model, the immunoradiotherapy could cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain and was also effective on HIV-infected cells in brain tissue.
The radioisotope used in the study, bismuth 213, has a short half-life, loses radioactivity in vivo in 4 hours, and when combined with specific antibodies against HIV gp41, kills only HIV-infected cells without damaging neighboring cells. And it may clear the viral reservoir, thus eradicating AIDS.
The research was supported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda K. Gates Foundation grant, the first clinical study will be conducted in South Africa, and preliminary results are expected by the end of 2014.