New Tack Could Be Potent HIV Weapon

Throwing a natural immune system chemical into the cocktail of drugs now used to treat HIV infection helps wipe out the “safe havens” where the virus can hide, researchers said. They said adding interleukin-2, or IL-2, to the mix flushes out the immune cells where the virus can hide. Then highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, drugs can kill it. “Our new data suggest that in HAART-treated patients, interleukin-2 may have a role in depleting this ‘reservoir’ of virus, where HIV would otherwise remain sequestered from the immune system,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, which did the study.