Researchers believe this cancer drug could cure HIV

In the 41-year HIV epidemic, there has yet to be a treatment option discovered that has been able to completely irradicate the virus – largely because of its ability to live on in hidden form in the genomes of T cells.

This means that although antiretroviral treatments now allow many HIV patients to lead healthy, normal lives, they are never truly cured of the infection.

But all that could be on the verge of changing.

Researchers studying Merck & Co Inc's cancer drug Keytruda – created for HIV patients who also have cancer – say the immunotherapy might help flush the dormant HIV from immune cells, potentially paving the way for new treatment options.

Keytruda is a monoclonal antibody designed to help the body’s own immune system fend off cancer by blocking proteins known as Programmed Death receptors, which are used by tumors to block disease-fighting cells.

Drugs like Keytruda release molecular breaks that tumors use to avoid the body’s immune system, allowing immune cells to recognize and attack cancer cells the same way they fight infections caused by viruses or bacteria.

But the news gets even better.

An international research team has said it has found evidence that shows that Keytruda – also known as pembrolizumab – can help reverse HIV’s ability to “hide” inside cells of people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy.

The study, published on Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, enrolled 32 people with both cancer and HIV through the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"Pembrolizumab was able to perturb the HIV reservoir," said Professor Sharon Lewin, director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, Australia.

Her group looked at blood samples collected from participants before and after they were treated with pembrolizumab.

Professor Lewin also noted that work would continue on the samples to understand how pembrolizumab modifies the immune response to HIV, and added that researchers hope it will "rev up the immune system to kill the HIV infected cells in the way it does with cancer.”