The potential of radioimmunotherapy as a new hope for HIV patients.

HIV/AIDS remains an enormous public health burden. Advances in anti-retroviral therapy (ART) have greatly reduced mortality and morbidity but HIV remains incurable, with patients suffering numerous disease- and treatment-related side effects. Any curative strategy for HIV must selectively eliminate existing infected cells. Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) is an established clinical modality in cancer treatment and has been shown to be effective in multiple infectious diseases models. We have recently demonstrated that RIT using a gp41-targeting antibody was effective and safe in eliminating HIV-infected cells in vivo (in mice), in vitro, and ex vivo in cells from HIV patients treated with ART. In addition, there is strong evidence that this radiolabeled antibody can eliminate HIV infected cells across the blood brain barrier. We consider RIT to be the most promising backbone strategy for HIV eradication.