Although the life expectancy for individuals with this virus was initially extremely short, in recent years the drugs that are used to combat this condition have improved greatly, allowing individuals with the virus to live without too much pain or duress for decades.
However, these drugs are not cures. They treat the condition by essentially keeping HIV replication at a minimum. The drugs must be taken for life or the HIV will proliferate and spread. Thus, they do not cure the patient. That said, in the past few years we have progressed by leaps and bounds, making amazing new headway in the fight against HIV and AIDS. For example, several people who were diagnosed with HIV were cured by use of chemotherapy. The first recorded case involved a United States citizen who was living in Berlin and received a stem cell transplant in 2010. Although this “cure” has many issues, it has been successful utilized several times since.
Now, scientists have discovered that an anti-fungal drug known as Ciclopirox causes HIV to commit suicide. The HIV virus has a natural suicide mechanism in it that activates if the virus is damaged, making it easier to the healthy specimens to procreate. This drug can trick the virus into turning off the mechanism that keeps it from killing itself, eradicating the HIV without harming the healthy cells. Essentially, the Ciclopirox impacts the HIV by jamming up the mitochondria.
This new drug combats HIV in two ways: It inhibits the expression of HIV genes, and (this is the kicker) it blocks the function of the mitochondria. This block reactivates the cell’s suicide pathway. Notably, the healthy, uninfected cells that were a part of the culture were not impacted or destroyed. Amazingly, the virus did not bounce back when Ciclopirox was removed.
And unlike current anti-HIV drugs, Ciclopirox completely eradicates infectious HIV from cell cultures, with no rebound of virus when the drug is stopped.
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