The virus’s ability to conceal itself inside certain white blood cells has been one of the main challenges for scientists looking for a cure.
It means there is a reservoir of the HIV in the body, capable of reactivation, that neither the immune system nor drugs can tackle.
Now researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, have demonstrated a way to make the virus visible, paving the way to fully clear it from the body.
For many it remains deadly, with UNAids figures suggesting one person died of HIV every minute in 2023.
She said: “Our hope is that this new nanoparticle design could be a new pathway to an HIV cure.”.
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”. »