TAG HIV Basic Science, Vaccines, and Cure Project Blog
By Richard Jefferys, Project Director at Treatment Action Group (TAG).
recent posts
- HIV Cure Research at AIDS 2026
- In The News: CAR-T Cells for HIV
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the March 2026 Update
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the February 2026 Update
- TAG’s HIV Cure-Related Clinical Research Listing: Background on the December 2025 and January 2026 Updates
Category: Structured treatment interruptions
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Last month, researchers from the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) published a paper in PLoS Pathogens addressing the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruptions in HIV cure research. The joint lead authors were Katherine E. Clarridge and Jana Blazkova, and the focus of the study was on the…
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The primary barrier to curing HIV infection is the persistence of the virus in a latent form in long-lived resting memory CD4 T cells. The number of latently infected resting memory CD4 T cells in a typical individual on ART is estimated to be in the range of 1-60 million. An important strand of HIV…
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To assist in the search for therapies that might contribute to curing HIV infection, scientists are seeking to identify biomarkers that are associated with control of viral load after an antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruption. If reliable predictors of viral load control could be identified, the effect of candidate therapies on these biomarkers could be evaluated…
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In the spring of 2013, a wildly inaccurate Daily Telegraph story about HIV cure research claiming “there will be a breakthrough in finding a cure for HIV within months” was amplified around the Internet, understandably receiving a massive amount of attention and interest. To their credit, the researchers whose work prompted the piece published a…
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In the late 1990s, a single case report about an individual displaying control of HIV viral load for nearly two years after interrupting antiretroviral therapy (ART) drew a huge amount of publicity, including a lengthy story in the New York Times magazine by Mark Schoofs in June of 1998. The case report was ultimately published in the…
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A study published in the January 2 issue of Science Translational Medicine reports that a dendritic cell (DC)-based therapeutic HIV vaccine was able to significantly lower viral load after an antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruption, albeit only transiently. The publication drew considerable press coverage, most of it reasonably accurate although some headline writers got carried away…
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For everyone who lived through the period prior to the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), the vanquishing of the opportunistic diseases of severe immune deficiency – such as PML, MAC, CMV retinitis and other horrors – is a source of profound relief. But as concerns about OIs have diminished, another longer-term worry has begun to…
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In HIV research, there is a persistent and vigorous debate around the question of whether or not viral replication persists in the face of successful antiretroviral therapy. During a plenary session at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City back in August, Bob Siliciano made a compelling argument that, in most cases, antiretroviral therapy completely shuts…
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The strong association between immune activation and disease progression in HIV infection has been demonstrated and confirmed by multiple studies over the past 25 years. In several reports, expression of the CD38 activation marker by CD8 T cells has correlated more closely with progression than viral load or CD4 T cell counts. Elevated levels of…
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The results of the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) review of the SMART study that took place November 1-2, 2005 are available online: http://www.communityconsortium.org/research/nov05-summary.pdf The salient quote: "Conclusion: No consideration of early stopping based on safety or efficacy is indicated.” Two months later, it’s all over.