New HIV Treatment Clears Virus in 100% of Infected Infants

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University just achieved something they didn't think was possible: completely clearing HIV from infected newborns with a short treatment course instead of lifelong medication.

The results, published in Nature Microbiology, showed that 100% of infant rhesus macaques cleared the virus after receiving a three-drug combination for eight to ten weeks. A year after stopping treatment, the virus still hadn't returned.

"The shocking thing was that it did work, and it worked remarkably well," said Jonah Sacha, professor at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Center. "This was 100%. It was wholly a black-and-white result."

The treatment combines two existing therapies, antiretrovirals and broadly neutralizing antibodies, with an experimental antibody called leronlimab that blocks HIV from entering immune cells. Researchers started treatment 72 hours after infection to mimic real-world conditions where HIV isn't always diagnosed immediately.

The team expected modest improvements at best. Instead, once the animals tested negative for the virus, researchers stopped the antiretroviral therapy entirely and watched nervously.

"We took all the brakes off the system, and the virus did not come back. It was just gone," Sacha says.

The breakthrough matters most for the 1.3 million children worldwide living with HIV, according to World Health Organization estimates. Current treatment requires taking antiretroviral drugs every day for life, which poses enormous challenges in poorer countries where families can't consistently access or afford medication.

Getting children to take the liquid medication is particularly difficult because it tastes bad. Missing doses allows HIV to develop into AIDS.

The Ripple Effect

The compounds used in this study have already been approved for treating people with HIV, meaning the path to human trials could move unusually fast. Sacha calls the translatability "almost instantaneous."

Researchers are already planning their next studies. They want to know how long after infection the treatment can work, whether it could cure people with established infections, and exactly why it worked so dramatically well.

"Curing HIV is like trying to hit a double bullseye on a dartboard, and doing it in the dark," Sacha said. "But if we can define the mechanism of it and know how this works, then you switch the light on and you can see the dartboard."

For families in countries where consistent HIV medication access remains out of reach, a short-term cure would represent more than medical progress—it would mean survival.