Pharma companies aren’t incentivized to cure HIV. Gilead found a cure for Hepatitis C but instead of being praised for it, it was derided by Wall Street because the limited financial value. I certainly hope a more honorable company will find a cure instead of a monthly treatment like Ozempic, which is a Wall Street darling because it’s expensive and monthly.
Interesting. I wonder if this would be applicable to other viruses that hide dormant like shingles or herpes.
> Prof Tomáš Hanke of the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, disputed the idea that getting RNA into white blood cells had been a significant challenge. He said the hope that all cells in the body where HIV was hiding could be reached in this way was “merely a dream”.
Another breakthrough earlier last month: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59398-7
Macrophage targeted mRNA. Wonderful.
Now do TB & leprosy.
Positive development.
Here's the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60001-2
To be clear: they deliver the HIV TAT protein which activates latent cells to transcribe HIV (ultimately possibly producing viable HIV virions).
Activating-to-kill has been pursued with other agents, but none have proven effective at depleting the reservoir. (The latent reservoir requires HIV anti-retroviral therapy to be lifelong, making one of the top three most expensive diseases in the US).
This may be more of a proof for the method, of encapsulating a fragile mRNA in a protective lipid layer, but one which will be incorporated into cells. I'd expect it to be used outside attempts to cure HIV (having consumed some HIV funding).