Saturday Magazine

21 Oct 2023

Saturday 21st, October, 2023: Assoc. Prof James McMahon & Dr Jillian Lau, TITAN HIV/AIDS Cure Trials

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Saturday 21st, October, 2023: Assoc. Prof James McMahon & Dr Jillian Lau, TITAN HIV/AIDS Cure Trials

Nevena and Macca are joined live in the studio by Assoc. Prof James McMahon & Dr Jillian Lau, TITAN HIV/AIDS Cure Trials, from the Alfred’s Infectious Diseases team, aimed to determine if drugs involved in the treatment of other medical conditions could also play a positive role in the treatment of HIV.

“[The TITAN trial] gave two different treatments – one of them were antibodies that target HIV and one was another drug that sort of soups up or fires up the immune system to try and fight anything that’s left over,” says A/Prof McMahon. “[The study] was important for us because it was the first study we’ve done here where we were safely stopping people’s normal antiviral treatment and were monitoring them and watching for their virus to come back in their blood.”

“To my knowledge, these are the first cure-focused treatment interruption studies done in Australia,” adds Dr Jillian Lau, an Infectious Diseases physician at Alfred Health.

“The treatment interruptions are a unique aspect of both of these trials.”

Both A/Prof McMahon and Dr Lau are especially conscious of the challenges involved with asking participants to temporarily abandon their existing treatments – even while under the careful supervision of the clinical research teams.

“If you’re someone with HIV, one of the first things you’re told is that if you get on these antiviral medications, you’ll have this normal, long, healthy life,” A/Prof McMahon describes. “You’re also constantly reinforced to take them all the time and told if you stop them your virus will come back.”

Volunteers interested in participating in the NIVO-LD trial and being a part of this research can contact 03 9076 6908 or visit https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05187429 for more information.

Photos courtesy of Star Observer and HealthShare