Chronic infections can be cured with personalized treatment

A recent discovery by researchers at A*STAR`s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), in collaboration with scientists at the Singapore Immunology Network (SIGN) proves that there could be a new personalized treatment based on the patient`s blood to treat chronic infections, such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV. This study is published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Vaccines are highly recommended for treating chronic infections because these are healing naturally. The greatest benefit of these vaccines would be that every patient receives personalized treatment for any of the chronic infections and vaccines thus would be less costly. “Mobilizing the immune system to use the virus within the patient for a vaccine is a simple idea that could lead to a personalized, yet widely applicable vaccine for chronic infections”, said Professor Antonio Bertoletti.

“This excellent collaborative discovery between SICS and SIGN is a milestone in vaccine therapy for chronic infections. I believe that these findings will go a long way in improving future therapeutic treatments for chronic infections”, said Professor Judith Swain, Executive Director of SICS.