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Radioactive radiation can help treat HIV
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Scientists have developed a completely new method of treating HIV-infected people using radioactive radiation, which could become a real breakthrough for medicine.
The currently used supportive therapy for HIV patients only reduces the level of the virus in the blood to the minimum values that are safe for life, but does not completely destroy it. In order to completely destroy infected cells in the human body, scientists decided to put radioimmunotherapy, which was originally developed for the treatment of cancer, into practice. Specialists have no doubt that the creation of a drug whose action is directly directed against a certain type of protein (namely Sprouty-2, which is responsible for reducing the functions of immune cells in HIV ), will also help restore the function of T-lymphocytes - one of the important elements of human immunity.
At the 99th Assembly of the Radiological Society, US experts proposed radioactive radiation as a possible method of destroying cells infected with the immunodeficiency virus. The results of research in this area were also presented there.
The authors of the research are employees of the Bronx Medical University named after A. Einstein. The researchers decided to use radioimmunotherapy in the fight against HIV infection, together with the currently used method of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Initially, such therapy was created for the treatment of oncological diseases, it is based on laboratory-created monoclonal antibodies associated with a certain isotope. The resulting molecular structures have a detrimental effect exclusively on atypical cancer cells, destroying them with radioactive radiation, without affecting healthy ones.
To adapt the therapy to HIV-infected patients, scientists took the radioisotope bismuth-213 and combined it with a monoclonal antibody created specifically against one of the proteins found on the surface of cells infected with the immunodeficiency virus. The antibodies created in this way were tested on blood samples taken from 15 HIV-infected patients receiving antiretroviral treatment. As a result, the scientists found that a significant number of infected cells died, while healthy cells remained without any damage. In addition, the specialists conducted an additional test on a special model of the central nervous system created for laboratory research. The antibodies with the isotope passed through the artificial brain barrier without any problems, without damaging it at all, while the barrier remains insurmountable for many drugs. After entering, the antibodies successfully destroyed nerve cells infected with the virus without affecting healthy ones. Future plans of American specialists include conducting clinical trials of the isotope with the participation of volunteers infected with HIV in order to prove the effectiveness of the developed method.
It is quite possible that this treatment method will become one of the main methods of HIV therapy in the future and will help to cope with even complex forms of the disease.
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