Data from researchers working with children who acquired HIV from their mothers through pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding has shown that antiretroviral (ARV) drugs administered early in their lives is having an unexpected outcome: the virus is undetectable in their bodies even after stopping the therapy.A recent study by University of Oxford pediatrician and immunologistPhilipGoulder describes how five children among a larger group remained in remission despite not receiving regular ARV therapy for an extended period, in one case up to 17 months. Related Controversial scientist says hell use gene editing to end HIV & Alzheimers Those children in a larger group from South Africa had failed to show up for continuing treatment; when they were tracked down, researchers found them to be perfectly healthy.Instead of their viral loads being through the roof, they were undetectable, Goulder told Wired. And normally, HIV rebounds within two or three weeks. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Goulders findings were supported by data presented at the International AIDS Society conference in Rwanda in July by Alfredo Tagarro, a pediatrician at the Infanta Sofia University Hospital in Madrid.His study showed that around 5 percent of HIV-infected children who receive antiretrovirals within the first six months of life ultimately suppress the HIV viral reservoir to negligible levels. The viral reservoir is the number of cells harboring the virus genetic material. Children have special immunological features which makes it more likely that we will develop an HIV cure for them before other populations, Tagarro said.Kids have a much more dynamic immune system, said Mark Cotton, who directs the childrens infectious diseases clinical research unit at the University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town.They also dont have any additional issues like high blood pressure or kidney problems. It makes them a better target, initially, for a cure. Cotton suspects that between 10 and 20 percent of all HIV-infected children would be capable of controlling the virus for a significant period of time after stopping antiretrovirals.The consensus comes as a number of new and potent HIV therapeutics come online, including so-called bNAbs, or broadly neutralizing antibodies, which can recognize and fight many different strains of HIV, as well as stimulate the bodys immune system to destroy cells where HIV is hiding.There are also therapeutic vaccines in development that can train the immune systems T cells to target and destroy HIV reservoirs.If children are already responding well to retroviral therapies, the addition of these new lines of attack could eradicate HIV in their bodies altogether, Goulder said.We think that adding the effects of these broadly neutralizing antibodies to antiretrovirals will help us chip away at what is needed to achieve a cure, Goulder said.Curing HIV probably requires a few hits from different angles, impacting the way that the virus can grow, and tackling it with different immune responses at the same time to essentially force it into a cul-de-sac that it cant escape from.Both Goulder and Cotton are ramping up studies to attempt just that. Researchers have recognized the special ability of children to fight off the virus since isolated cases emerged in the past decade.In 2013, the so-called Mississippi baby acquired HIV in the womb and was given aggressive antiretroviral therapy. At three years old, she showed no active infection despite stopping therapy 18 months earlier.The case of a South African child was revealed in 2017 at the International AIDS Conference in Paris. The child was born to an HIV-infected mother and given ARVs starting at 8 weeks old. As part of a controlled clinical trial, the treatment was stopped at 40 weeks, and more than 8 years later, the virus hadnt rebounded.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.