A plant-based compound that inhibits reactivation of the HIV viral reservoir, giving the immune system a break

As of 2022, approximately 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV. Antiretroviral therapies have enabled many of these individuals to live productive, symptom-free lives, but a cure that permanently eliminates HIV from an infected person’s body is still a long way off. However, researchers at The Wistar Institute, an international biomedical research institute in the areas of cancer, immunology, infectious disease, and vaccine development, have zeroed in on a promising compound that targets HIV reservoirs that persist in people living with HIV despite the presence of anti-HIV therapy.