Answers could come from Esprit, the largest, most expensive HIV trial ever conducted. Esprit will enroll individuals with more than 300 T-cells. Critics say that even these costly blockbuster studies may not prove definitive. In this case, IL-2 may still be a drug that looks best on paper. Despite so many caveats, IL-2 is viewed as a crucial player in a new treatment paradigm.
Some researchers propose as the next step, socking the immune system with the virus again.
When the beefed-up immune system sees the virus again, it may be able to take control. This approach may not work immediately, but over time, it could theoretically provide better control after each drug holiday. So far there are intriguing hints that this approach could work. They saw their viral load levels spike immediately, and then drop spontaneously to an average of 36,000 copies, suggesting some degree of immune control. In two out of three patients who went off the drug a second time, the virus increased gradually before leveling off at around 10,000 copies.