Drug Discovery and Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Abbott researchers help discover a clue to an HIV cure

By Chris Newmarker | March 2, 2021

HIV CDC

Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1 (in green) budding from cultured lymphocyte. [Image courtesy of CDC]

Abbott announced today that a team including its scientists has uncovered a rare group of Democratic Republic of Congo residents who are HIV positive but have almost nonexistent viral loads without using antiretroviral treatments.

This group of “HIV elite controllers” opens up a new area for researchers to discover biological trends that could inform the creation of better HIV treatments and potential vaccines.

To date, viral sequence diversity has complicated HIV vaccine development efforts.

The researchers from Abbott, Johns Hopkins University, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Université Protestante au Congo found that the prevalence of HIV elite controllers was 2.7–4.3% in the DRC, versus 0.1–2% worldwide.

The group published their findings today in EBioMedicine (part of The Lancet).

“The finding of a large group of HIV elite controllers in the DRC is significant considering that HIV is a life-long, chronic condition that typically progresses over time,” said Dr. Tom Quinn, director of Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health and chief of the International HIV/AIDS Research Section of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“There have been rare instances of the infection not progressing in individuals prior to this study, but this high frequency is unusual and suggests there is something interesting happening at a physiological level in the DRC that’s not random,” said Quinn, who is one of the study authors.

Abbott Park, Ill.–based Abbott was one of the early companies to throw its research efforts into combatting HIV and AIDS, developing the first FDA-approved HIV test more than 30 years ago. Abbott established its Global Viral Surveillance Program to identify HIV and hepatitis mutations and ensure that its diagnostic tests remain up to date. The efforts of Abbott and its partners discovered a new strain of HIV in 2019.

The program had plasma collected in 1987, 2001–03 and 2017–19 in the DRC, home to the oldest known HIV strains. The plasma samples enabled the research team to rule out false positives, collection site bias, high genetic diversity and antiretroviral treatment as the cause of non-detectable viral counts in 10,457 people in the DRC from 2017 to 2019.  The scientists used Abbott’s Architect HIV Ag/Ab Combo tests and m 2000 RealTime HIV-1 tests to detect HIV antibodies and viral load ranges, respectively, in the patients.

“Global surveillance work keeps us ahead of emerging infectious diseases — and in this instance, we realized we had found something that could be another step toward unlocking a cure for HIV,” said Michael Berg, an associate research fellow in infectious disease research at Abbott and lead author of the study. “The global research community has more work to do — but harnessing what we learn from this study and sharing it with other researchers puts us closer to new treatments that could possibly eliminate HIV.”


Filed Under: Infectious Disease, R&D World, RD
Tagged With: abbott, AIDS, HIV, HIV vaccine, Johns Hopkins University, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Université Protestante au Congo, University of Missouri-Kansas City, vaccine
 

About The Author

Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.

Related Articles Read More >

covid-19 vaccine
FDA COVID booster pullback jolts vaccine stocks before gains cool
Coronavirus Covid-19 background - 3d rendering
Pregnancy associated with less long COVID: Researchers call for studies on protective biology
How technology advances are helping scientists unlock the mysteries of zoonotic diseases
Novel coronovirus
Advances in next generation vaccine development for SARS-CoV-2
“ddd
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in the drug discovery and development industry.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Drug Discovery and Development
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • Medtech100 Index
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Drug Discovery & Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE