Unlocking the secrets of HIV control without treatment

Ezequiel Ruiz-Mateos

Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS) - Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

While HIV remains a global health challenge, a small group of people known as “elite controllers” can suppress the virus without medication. Among them, some eventually lose control of the virus, but others—called “persistent controllers”—maintain this control indefinitely. This project aims to understand what makes this long-term control possible and whether it can be replicated in others.

Researchers have discovered that in some persistent controllers, the virus is either defective or hidden in parts of the cell where it cannot reactivate. This project will use advanced genetic and immune profiling techniques to study these individuals in detail, analyzing both blood and tissue samples. The goal is to identify people who may be functionally cured of HIV and to understand the immune responses that helped them achieve this state.

The team will also look at people who have been on long-term treatment to see if some of them have developed a similar virus profile. If so, they might be able to stop treatment without the virus returning. By comparing these groups, the researchers hope to uncover immune markers and biological signatures that could guide new therapies or vaccines to help others reach a similar state of remission.

• Mathias Lichterfeld, Harvard University, USA

• Julià Blanco, Institut de Recerca Sobre Immunopatologies-Caixa (IrsiCaixa), Badalona, Spain

• Anna Rull, Health Research Institute Pere Virgili (IISPV), Tarragona, Spain

• Adhara, Asociación VIH/Sida, Sevilla, Spain
  Projecte dels Noms-Hispanosida, Barcelona, Spain

High-resolution profiling of HIV-1 reservoir and immune response for revealing HIV cure

€999.952,40