HIV Research Summary

It is clear that we are unlikely to eradicate HIV with the medications currently available. We face the challenge to develop long-range therapeutic strategies that will suppress HIV replication and maintain CD4 cell counts while minimizing cost and toxicity and enhancing adherence. Interrupting HAART in a well-defined, well-conceived manner offers some hope of helping achieve these new goals. However, it is too early to know which, if any, of these approaches will be beneficial. While we measure many things in the laboratory to help direct strategies, we are greatly limited by what we do not know, and the many things we have not begun to understand about the immune response to this unusual retrovirus (HIV). Many factors, including changes in the virus itself and in the activation of the cells, may be important in determining the success of interrupting HAART as a therapeutic option. The ultimate proof will be the effects of multiple interruptions of HAART on viral load, CD4 cell counts, and disease progression.

Mark Dybul, M.D. is a Clinical Fellow in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

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