HIV Breakthrough: British man may be the first person to be cured of HIV

A British man could become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV using a new therapy designed by a team of scientists from five UK universities.

In a first time ever landmark research trial, research on HIV is close to find a breakthrough point, since the years it was diagnosed as a non-curable disease. A 44-year-old British man not agreed to be named has participated in the trials and of the recent achievements within the research, the trials undertaken have led to the desertion of the active T-cells which were present in the blood of the subject.

Thus, showing positive results, the experiment has given a light of hope for all the patients suffering from the fatal disease across the world.

A team comprising five renowned universities of UK has collaborated with National Health Services (NHS), in order to launch a project to conduct trials on 50 people and if the tests result in positive the treatment to HIV will be possible.

After the test was conducted on the british man for a period since some time, the tests conducted on him showed that there was no detectable HIV virus present in his blood. Although it was too early to confirm that the treatment had worked, reported Daily Mail report.

The test was conducted on the basics that currently the antiretroviral therapies can target active T-cells that are infected with HIV but they cannot treat dormant T-cells. This means that patients’ bodies continue to reproduce the virus.

At first a vaccine is injected in the patients body, which aids the body find infected T-cells. A course of drugs is then followed on namingly Vorinostat, which further awakens the dormant (non-active) T-cells that then begin producing HIV proteins that act as a homing beacon to the immune system, Daily mail reported.

The therapy works by working on the non-active i.e., the dormant T-cells, in order to first activate them and then later on clear them from the blood.

“This therapy is specifically designed to clear the body of all HIV viruses, including dormant ones,” Professor Sarah Fidler, a consultant physician at Imperial College London, told the Times.

Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure, told The Sunday Times, “We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days but the progress has been remarkable.”

As Per the tests conducted: (Source: Daily Mail)

• Man, 44, is first of 50 to complete a trial using two-stage attack on virus.


• Research carried out by collaboration of five top UK universities and NHS.


• HIV hides from immune system but new treatment tricks it into coming out.


• Treatment then triggers immune system to recognise and tackle the virus.

Blood tests will be up for next five years on the British Man, to counter as well as check any kind of possibility of the virus returning within the body. Thus the final result awaited has raised hope percentage for the cure of the disease among the sufferers.