Monsef Benkirane

Beyond HIV treatment: eradicating HIV persistence to cure AIDS 

1.1 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses worldwide in 2015. In spite of tremendous improvements, tritherapy stays powerless to completely eradicate the epidemic. For those who have access to tritherapy, lifelong treatment must be followed as any interruption in its course means a rebound from the dormant virus. 

Monsef Benkirane has been investigating HIV with his Montpellier team at the Institute of Human Genetics since 1998. They aim to understand how HIV persists in the body and defies advanced treatments. The Fondation Bettencourt Schueller supports their research project for modeling and eradicating HIV latency. Long lived viral reservoirs have been identified as the main cause of HIV latency and viral rebound. Those reservoirs are composed of a few infected host cells that escaped both the tritherapy and the patient’s immune system. 

Dr. Benkirane intends to identify markers for tracking and targeting those cells in patients. As an expert in viral genetics and molecular biology, he is especially equipped to elucidate how the virus hides, maintains itself in a dormant state and reactivates when an opportunity arises. Treatments targeting the mechanisms underlying those processes could assist with completely eradicating HIV from the body of patients.

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