BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

A shocking vaccine

A new take on “shock and kill” for HIV

November 30, 2016 2:27 PM UTC

After more than 15 years of failed “shock and kill” strategies in HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART), designed to flush out the last traces of virus, a new take on the method has finally shown promise in monkeys, allowing a subset of animals to stop taking the drugs.

While previous approaches attempted to eliminate all copies of the virus, the new method targets a “functional cure” by boosting the immune system and allowing it to control the virus on its own - with no assistance from ART...