Breakthrough study: Indian-origin scientist finds cancer therapy safe for HIV, TB patients

New Delhi: A study led by an Indian-origin scientist has made a breakthrough in helping patients battling both HIV and tuberculosis (TB). The research found that a cancer therapy can effectively control TB without interfering with combined antiretroviral therapy (cART).

cART is a treatment that uses a combination of three or more drugs to treat HIV infection.

While many TB cases can be treated with antibiotics over several months, the infection can return in individuals who are immunocompromised due to HIV. This resurgence of TB, responsible for over 1.3 million deaths globally, can often be fatal for these patients.

“This is an important hurdle that this host-directed therapy had to clear in order to help patients battling both HIV and TB,” said Professor Smriti Mehra, from Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed)

In the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal JCI Insight, the scientist and her team focussed on the protein, called IDO (short for Indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase) -- a therapy currently used in cancer.

The host-directed therapy, already approved by the US FDA, blocks or inhibits an immune system protein naturally found in the body.

The team showed that IDO normally suppresses the immune system, preventing it from causing excessive inflammation and organ damage.

Blocking IDO for short intervals led to more successful cancer treatments.

Mehra’s team previously showed that the same approach improves control of TB in conjunction with antibiotics.

They experimented with the therapy in the current study in nonhuman primates with both TB and simian immunodeficiency virus -- the nonhuman primate version of HIV.

The results showed the IDO inhibitor does not interfere with cART and is safe for patients with HIV.

Animals given cART and the IDO inhibitor showed no “increase in viral load” compared to those with only cART.

The scientist also called for longer-term studies to confirm there are no unintended side effects. IANS