Scientists suggested that one of the patients they studied was able to get rid of HIV without treatment, that is,
Almost all HIV-infected people are forcedtake antiviral drugs. However, some can do without pills: the body copes with the disease itself, although it does not completely get rid of the virus. Scientists do not yet fully understand how exactly the immune system prevents HIV from multiplying.
The researchers decided to compare the genome of such people andgenome of typical HIV-infected patients taking antiretroviral therapy. Scientists saw that in the first humans, the virus was embedded in inactive parts of the genome. Most likely, this is the result of the immune system, which destroyed all other cells infected with the virus.
In some cases, the function of the immune systemleads to the fact that HIV practically disappears from the body. In one woman, scientists generally found only 19 defective, incapable of reproduction, proviruses, although the patient had lived with the infection for more than 25 years. Researchers need to better understand her case so that they can say that she is the first person to cope with HIV without pills.