Scientists at NIH and Emory achieve sustained SIV remission in monkeys

Thursday, October 13, 2016

NIH clinical trial of treatment regimen in HIV-infected people is underway.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Emory University have experimentally induced sustained remission of SIV, the simian form of HIV, in infected monkeys. The animals’ immune systems have been suppressing the virus to undetectable levels for as long as 23 months since the monkeys completed an investigational treatment regimen. In addition, the regimen has led to the near-complete replenishment of key immune cells that SIV had destroyed, something unachievable with antiretroviral therapy (ART) alone. The findings will be published in the Oct. 14 issue of the journal Science.