A new clinical trial has shown early success in using CAR-T cell therapy to control HIV, with two participants going off their antiretroviral drugs for up to nearly two years.

The technique, originally developed for cancer treatment, involves reprogramming a patient's immune cells to recognize and attack the virus. This method could potentially offer a long-term solution that doesn't require lifelong medication.

Professor Steven Deeks from the University of California, San Francisco, who led the trial, says: 'If we can provide proof-of-concept that this approach is both safe and effective, then there are lots of ways in which it can be optimized.' The treatment has already had promising results, with one participant remaining off medication for almost a year.

While only a small study, the findings could represent a significant step towards finding a functional cure. Currently, a handful of documented cases of long-term remission of HIV have been linked to stem cell transplants using rare genetic mutations that naturally prevent HIV infection. However, these procedures are not scalable and come with serious risks.

By engineering T cells specifically to target sites on the HIV virus, scientists hope to create an ongoing immune response capable of controlling the virus without daily medication. The trial included nine participants who were given different doses of CAR-T cells, with some rebounding within weeks while others maintained viral suppression for longer periods.