Learning from Post-Treatment Control
Groundbreaking amfAR immunotherapy trial yields new knowledge, new research
(Photo by Noah Berger/USCF)
At the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in March, speakers and participants alike expressed grave concerns about precipitous cuts in federal funding for research and global health programs and their impact on people worldwide living with HIV and other viral conditions.
The cuts and their consequences seemed all the more surreal in light of a robust research pipeline on display at the conference, which featured over 2,000 abstracts, posters, and oral presentations. In the field of HIV alone, scientists shared exciting study results about two new probable HIV cure cases, long-acting PrEP, and a novel broadly neutralizing antibody as part of long-acting HIV treatment.
Among the 11 studies by amfAR grantees shared at CROI, one study, funded by amfAR, the NIH, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, exemplified why stable support for HIV research is essential.
The study built upon a groundbreaking University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)-amfAR HIV cure trial, whose results were presented at CROI in 2023. The trial established proof of concept that a combination of immunotherapy agents (HIV vaccine, broadly neutralizing antibodies, and a toll-like receptor agonist, among others) could induce post-treatment control of HIV. When treatment was interrupted, seven of the 10 participants were able to achieve at least partial HIV control.
For the new study, researchers examined the early viral dynamics within individuals whose treatment had been paused, a likely predictor of how well the immune system can control HIV.
The study enrolled the seven controllers from the UCSF-amfAR cure trial and 13 treatment-experienced individuals who had never controlled HIV. For both groups, treatment was paused and clinical and virologic outcomes were monitored and compared.
The study enrolled the seven controllers from the UCSF-amfAR cure trial and 13 treatment-experienced individuals who had never controlled HIV. For both groups, treatment was paused and clinical and virologic outcomes were monitored and compared.
“… This illustrates well the role that organizations like amfAR play in establishing…a scientific foundation upon which we can build larger cure programs.”
The findings suggest that individuals who are destined to control HIV—spontaneously or after a cure intervention—exhibit evidence of post-treatment control immediately after treatment is paused. Thus, the researchers suggest that future clinical trials need to target the earliest timepoints of HIV and immune system interaction, when they first encounter one another.
This approach forms the basis for a project recently funded by amfAR and led by Michael Peluso, MD, of UCSF, one of the UCSF-amfAR HIV cure trial investigators and a co-author of the abovementioned post-treatment control study. With his grant, Dr. Peluso will test the ability of the cancer drug N-803 to suppress HIV rebound in people after they have paused antiretroviral therapy. N-803 appears to stimulate both natural killer and T cells and is 25 times more potent than its natural immune hormone counterpart, IL-15, which has known anti-HIV activity. These follow-up trials are not exceptions. The UCSF-amfAR HIV cure trial has, in fact, led to an abundance of new research.
“Based on the results of the UCSF-amfAR study, there are now similar larger studies occurring in the ACTG [AIDS Clinical Trials Group] and MHRP [Military HIV Research Program], and we just submitted a huge NIH grant to build upon the findings,” said Dr. Peluso. “I think this illustrates well the role that organizations like amfAR play in establishing proof of concept and a scientific foundation upon which we can build larger cure programs.”
Click Here to read more from the May 2025 issue of amfAR INNOVATIONS.
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