A potential cure for HIV will be tested on British patients next year in a ground-breaking trial of a treatment that aims to put sufferers into cancer-style remission.
The virus will be “woken up” from its hiding place within cells so that it can be targeted by a combination of drugs, in a first-stage study by a group of five leading universities supported by the Medical Research Council.
Although the 50 patients involved are unlikely to be cured, scientists hope that their reservoir of hidden HIV will be cut significantly, showing that the method has the potential to cure the condition in further studies. Even if the trial succeeds, it will be many years before any treatment is ready for routine use.
About 100,000 people