Doctors say ‘profound’ new HIV treatment may prove the cure

Forget the anti-viral drugs. Doctors say they very well may have discovered a new and more successful treatment for HIV-positive patients — flooding the body with powerful bursts of radiation that weaken and kill infected white blood cells.

The scientists, based in New York, say this radioactive smart bombing, especially when combined with anti-viral medicines, has produced some encouraging results, the Daily Mail reported.

Researchers found that blasting the body with radiation, at the same time feeding patients certain antiviral medicines, pretty much wipes out the human immunodeficiency virus. Dr. Ekaterina Dadachova of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx said tests after the treatment plan show the HIV is barely perceptible in the body. And one additional benefit: Those with HIV-infected cells in the brain suffered far less damage when treated with the radiation-blasting approach than with the traditional anti-viral drug method, the Daily Mail reported.

“Antiretroviral treatment only partially penetrates the blood brain barrier, which means that even if a patient is free of HIV systemically, the virus is still able to rage on in the brain, causing cognitive disorders and mental decline,” said the doctor in a statement reported by the Daily Mail. “Our study showed that radioimmunotherapy is able to kill HIV-infected cells both systemically and within the central nervous system.”

The fight to find a way to kill the virus has been waging for 30 years, and scientists say this latest finding is giving them great hope. They tested the new treatment plan on 15 patients currently undergoing care for HIV. And their findings: The new method killed infected cells that were circulating in the patients’ systems, resistant to the drugs, even those that had penetrated the brain. Moreover, the radioactive blasts didn’t harm healthy cells, the doctors said.

“The elimination of HIV-infected cells [with the new treatment] was profound and specific,” Dr. Dadachova said in the Daily Mail report. “The radionuclide we used delivered radiation only to HIV-infected cells without damaging nearby cells.”