In the past few decades, with the unremitting efforts of scientists, research on HIV antiviral drugs has made good progress, successfully controlling the viral load of many HIV-infected people, allowing them to maintain a normal life, However, HIV treatment coverage is still insufficient in many countries and regions, and social discrimination and misunderstandings about AIDS also hinder the progress of prevention and treatment efforts.
（Image Source from UNAIDS）
We learned from the latest "Global AIDS Prevention and Treatment Progress Report 2023 - The Road to Ending AIDS" released by the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS that there are currently 39 million people living with HIV in the world, of which 29.8 million are receiving antiretroviral treatment. In 2022, there will be 130 million people living with HIV. million new HIV infections and 630,000 deaths from AIDS-related diseases. The report points out the important challenges facing HIV/AIDS prevention and control:
Therefore, we still need continuous research and efforts to maintain global health security, promote global healthy development and sustainable economic and social development, and jointly protect a bright future of human health.
We know from the latest UNAIDS Global AIDS Response Progress Report 2023 - The Road to an End to AIDS that there are currently 39 million people living with HIV globally, 29.8 million of whom are on antiretroviral treatment, 1.3 million new HIV infections in 2022, and 630,000 deaths from AIDS-related illnesses. The report points out the important challenges facing AIDS prevention and control. The report identifies key challenges to HIV prevention and control: AIDS claimed a life every minute in 2022. Millions of people still miss out on treatment, including 43% of children living with HIV. Effective treatments had been developed but were available only at prohibitively expensive prices, limiting their use to a privileged few people.
Therefore, we still need continuous research and efforts to maintain global health security, promote global health development and sustainable economic and social development, and jointly safeguard a better future for human health.
Numbers of new HIV infections are increasing in some countries with sizeable epidemics
Change in number of new HIV infections, countries with available data, 2010–2022
Source: UNAIDS epidemiological estimates, 2023 (https://aidsinfo.unaids.org/).
In HIV treatment research, there are antiviral drug targets at each stage of the HIV life cycle, which can control HIV infection by intervening in the replication process of the virus. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the most popular treatment for infected people around the world. Infected people need to take medication for life, which is also accompanied by problems of drug tolerance or drug resistance side effects. In contrast, mRNA therapy uses the body's own cells to produce antigens and provides longer-lasting specific immunity, which will be a new breakthrough in HIV treatment.
On August 10, we participated in the "Gene\Cell Therapy Seminar under New Delivery Systems" hosted by Danaher Life Sciences, Firestone Datalink and Beijing Zhongguancun Life Science Park Development Co., Ltd., at the Beijing Hetang Ms. Zhang Yurui, Vice President of Shenghua Medical Technology Co., Ltd., shared the development analysis and research examples of the nucleic acid drug industry. We learned about the latest progress of nucleic acid drug solutions at this stage, as well as the development prospects and challenges of nucleic acid drugs and nucleic acid vaccines.
We attended the "Workshop on Gene\Cell Therapy under Novel Delivery System" hosted by Danaher Life Sciences, Firestone Digital Chain and Beijing Zhongguancun Life Science Park Development Limited Liability Company on August 10th, where Ms. Zhang Yurui, Vice President of Beijing Horton Sanghwa Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd. shared the analysis of the development of the nucleic acid drug industry and examples of research, and we learned about the current stage of the nucleic acid drug solutions The latest progress, as well as the development prospects and challenges of nucleic acid drugs and nucleic acid vaccines.
mRNA vaccines have been used on a large scale in the COVID-19 epidemic. The research and development of HIV mRNA vaccines and drugs is a new hope for the treatment of HIV. As high school students, we will also devote ourselves to this exploration within our capabilities and complete it through updating and iteration of laboratory methods. The HIV-1 RRE and Rev protein interaction experiment provides an effective molecular mechanism for drug targets through the interaction between biological components and enzymes. It is hoped that it can help companies start related drugs by inhibiting nucleic acid transcription and interacting with viral proteins. Formulations are developed to minimize the side effects of current HIV drugs and achieve better efficacy.
We believe that in the near future, mankind will be able to achieve more comprehensive and effective prevention and treatment of AIDS, so that people around the world will be protected from the threat of this disease.