Cancer Cure Latest News 2017: Nobel Laureate Ramps Up Efforts to Find Universal Cure for HIV and Cancer
Prof. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, a Nobel Laureate, said the ultimate cure for HIV and cancer might just be on its way. According to her, certain cancer therapies are now being tested as a cure to HIV as well as they help build up HIV patients' defences against the virus.
Years ago, the professor co-discovered HIV with Luc Montagnier. Recently, she spoke before a number of journalists in Paris who were having a tour of the Institut Pasteur laboratories and said they were now ramping up efforts to see if there could be a universal cure for both cancer and HIV. In fact, she announced during the session that an HIV Cure and Cancer Forum would soon be inaugurated, dedicated to the discovery of an HIV and cancer cure.
"Efforts are now underway to determine if these cancer therapies can be used to build up the immune system of patients with HIV. This will be in such a way that HIV patients can achieve a durable and perhaps life-long treatment-free state of remission," she said.
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Barre-Sinoussi explained that they had already discovered how to alter several key immune pathways in the body while studying chronic viral infections like HIV.
She said, "We know that controlling HIV in the absence of therapy will require the generation and maintenance of powerful CD8+ or Killer-T cells that can target vulnerable parts of the virus." This is reportedly very similar to how certain therapies create Killer T-cells to keep the body of a patient free from cancer cells.
In an interview with BBC, the professor also explained that the HIV virus proliferates the way tumor or cancer cells do, so it is highly possible to "develop a strategy for HIV-cure that is similar to the novel treatment in the field of cancer."
During her talk, the Nobel Laureate said continued support for the research that they are conducting is essential. She also explained that sustained synergy could help strengthen the sciences and that she was optimistic that a cure for HIV and cancer is possible.
