Bringing social context into global biomedical HIV cure-related research: An urgent call to action

Abstract

Advances in science have ushered in a wave of new potential curative and control strategies for HIV that could eliminate the current requirement for life-long antiretroviral therapy (ART) for people living with HIV (PLWH). In this article, we argue that it is critical to consider social contexts in the development of HIV cure trial protocols. The biological and behavioral risk factors for HIV acquisition by study participants are inseparable from the social context in which these participants live. The article discusses an example of a cohort established to further HIV cure research that included social context, called the FRESH Acute HIV study, which combines a sociostructural intervention while conducting HIV prevention, treatment and cure-related research in Durban, South Africa. We make an urgent call to action to include sociobehavioral components as instrumental in future HIV cure trials in global context.

World AIDS Day 2022

“…This case represents the second observation of a possible spontaneous cure due to an outstanding immune control, leading over time to the clearance of the virus. Definitively, these rare cases reignited enthusiasm for immune strategies 12 .…”

Response to HIV-1 gp160-carrying recombinant virus HSV-1 and HIV-1 VLP combined vaccine in BALB/c mice

“…Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) induced immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is widespread across the world and continues to rise. 1 Since its discovery in 1983, the number of infections and deaths has already exceeded a billion, and this number is still increasing despite extensive work for drugs and vaccines development (Larijani et al, 2019;Miall et al, 2022). Upon infection, HIV-1 employs multiple immune evasion strategies that allow for its replication (Desrosiers, 1999).…”

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“…How applicable and acceptable are the cures being developed to patients in low-middle income countries (LMICs)? There is an urgent need to answer these questions in different geographical settings [ 24 ] to ensure that interventions being developed will be acceptable to patients around the world, especially in Africa where most PLWH reside. These answers could feed into the design of cure intervention to assure maximum participation in future trials.…”