Several studies have addressed this possibility. Unfortunately, IL-2's promise has not been confirmed. The two study arms exhibited the same viral load change, both during treatment and after it was halted. A group from Barcelona described 12 volunteers undergoing repeated 30-day treatment interruptions every three months. If IL-2 alone is not enough to activate and purge the latently infected reservoir, perhaps adding additional immune modulators might help.
Macrophages can sustain chronic production of small amounts of virus.
Two study participants who halted treatment at this point experienced rapid viral rebound. Meanwhile, the three patients suffered from massive inflammatory side effects, including kidney failure and seizures in one. One reason why IL-2, even with added reinforcement, has not performed in attempts to deplete latent HIV stems from the problem of residual replication. The only source of new virus would be the occasional activation of individual latently infected cells. They would then spew out new virions in a limited cycle of replication dampened immediately by the drugs.