TIPping the Scales: Contagious Therapy Against HIV
Sharing is caring - so what if you could transmit your HIV therapy to someone else? In this episode, we talked to Dr. Leor Weinberger, whose team has invented TIPs, or Therapeutic Interfering Particles, that are mutant, shortened forms of HIV that cannot replicate on their own and cannot cause disease. In cells that contain HIV, these TIPs outcompete HIV, preventing it from replicating. These TIPs could then be spread from person to person through the same ways that HIV is transmitted. This therapy could go a long way towards fighting the barriers against disease control - adherence, access, and resistance.
We thought this was a really unique idea that has the potential of reducing the population level of HIV, and we wanted to share this early-stage research with you.