This antibody therapy may transform HIV treatment, claim researchers

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: If researchers are to be believed, then a new antibody-based drug can slow down the replication of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the body.

Researchers who have developed this new drug say that it is also capable of providing a better strategy for long-term control of the life-taking infection.

Anti-retroviral therapy -- a combination of drugs that slows the replication of HIV in the body -- currently used to treat HIV has drawbacks.

If a person discontinues his or her treatment, even missing a few doses, the level of the virus in the body is able to rebound quickly.

In the antibody therapy, the researchers used 3BNC117 -- a molecule -- also called as a broadly neutralising antibody because it has the ability to fight a wide range of HIV strains.

The findings of the first clinical trial showed that using the antibody could greatly reduce the amount of virus that is present in an individual's blood.

(With IANS inputs)