A family member who has been infected with HIV for several years told me there may be new cure. She told me that in conjunction with the Protease inhibitors a new drug called "INTERLEUKIN" is the new cure for HIV/AIDS. Is this true and if so, can you provide more info about this new drug? Additionally, she is a certified AIDS Counselor and is very knowledgeable about this about this disease. Thanks.

First a blunt answer. There is as yet NO cure for HIV infection. So - what is the news on Interleukin?

You are asking about a medication called Interleukin-2. It has been studied in HIV treatment for over ten years. What is primarily does is cause the T4 cells to grow. So for years much of the research has been to work with it to help people to regrow their T4 counts - recent studies are focussed on a few issues. One is to learn if these T4 cells 'work' to prevent illness in a large multicountry study. Second, to learn if lower doses taken every day might work to increase the T4 counts of those whose counts are around 100 or so. The usual doses given for five days do cause some pretty hefty side effects - so the high dose approach has not been for everyone. The lower dose is easier to take - but there is less information about how well it will work. All work with IL2 is with people who have their viral load fully controlled - like below 50 copies or at least below 400 - since it is also known that unless HIV is controlled there can be a temporary increase in the viral load when IL2 is given.

But what about that 'cure' idea? Well - there is one other aspect of IL2 that is of interest. We know that one reason HIV infection is so difficult to cure is that there are many cells in the body that lie dormant (asleep) with HIV inside, and it may be many years or decades before all of these cells die off (if they ever do). AS long as those cells are around - HIV can start to grow again. So can we do anything to speed the rate at which these cells die off? We don't know for sure but that is the new exploration for IL2 - since we also know that after stimulating the T4 cell to grow and make new cells - the original cell dies off. And if someone is on effective antivirals which hopefully prevents the HIV from being transmitted to the new cells - then maybe we can speed the rate that HIV is eliminated from the body by 'flushing' out these hiding places.

So far - there are reports from (only) two people who have taken IL2 who are under intensive study after taking IL2 with antivirals for a year. In lymph node biopsies it has been very difficult to any evidence of HIV growth - it is still there, but at a much reduced amount than usually seen. And these two people have stopped antivirals to see if what little HIV is left is enough to grow back. And we should hear about their progress over these next months.

So there is no cure known. Even in these two people there is evidence of HIV. But it is not yet known if the treatment has so profoundly reduced the amount of what is there to prevent any growth. It may be that our immune system can control what little is left after such treatment.

And we also don't know how often this would be the result with IL-2 - we are too new at this research to know if this happens 1% of the time, 10% - or more than that. We are hopeful of course... but cautious.

Stay tuned!