BREAKTHROUGH Now, a cancer drug to flush out dormant HIV

Washington: A drug used to treat certain types of cancer is able to dislodge hidden virus in patients receiving treatment for HIV, researchers have claimed.      University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a study found the existence of persistent reservoirs of dormant HIV in the immune system that are not attacked by anti-AIDS drugs, believed to be a major reason why infection re-emerges once patients stop taking their medication. The disruption of these reservoirs is critical to finding a cure for AIDS.      Researchers at UNC, working in collaboration with scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health, National Cancer Institute and the University of California undertook a series of experiments designed to evaluate the potential of the drug vorinostat. Vorinosta is a deacetylase inhibitor that is used to treat some types of lymphoma, to activate and disrupt the dormant virus.      Laboratory experiments measuring active HIV levels in CD4+T cells,which are specialized white blood cells that the virus uses to replicate, showed that vorinostat unmasked the hidden virus in these cells. Subsequently, vorinostat was administered to eight HIV-infected men who were medically stable on antiretroviral therapy and the levels of active HIV virus were measured and compared to the levels prior to administration. PTI