Researchers studying Merck & Co Inc's cancer drug Keytruda for HIV patients who also have cancer say the immunotherapy may help displace the virus from human immune cells, offering an intriguing area of study for treatment of chronic HIV infection.
Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab, is a monoclonal antibody designed to help the body’s own immune system fend off cancer by blocking a protein known as Programmed Death receptor used by tumors to evade disease-fighting cells. An international research collaboration said it has found evidence that pembrolizumab can reverse HIV latency - the ability for the virus to"hide" inside cells of people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy.
"Pembrolizumab was able to perturb the HIV reservoir," Professor Sharon Lewin, director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, Australia, said in a statement.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.