Disappointing test results as drugs fail to reawaken dormant HIV infection

Scientists at Johns Hopkins report that compounds they hoped would "wake up" dormant reservoirs of HIV inside immune system T cells - a strategy designed to reverse latency and make the cells vulnerable to destruction - have failed to do so in laboratory tests of such white blood cells taken directly from patients infected with HIV."Despite our high hopes, none of the compounds we tested in HIV-infected cells taken directly from patients activated the latent virus," says Robert F. Siliciano, M.D., Ph.D.