Testing a new drug to shrink the hidden HIV virus reservoir

This trial investigates whether venetoclax, a medication that helps cells die in a controlled way, can reduce the hidden HIV reservoir — the pool of inactive virus that remains in your body even with standard HIV treatment. Researchers believe that by combining venetoclax with your regular HIV medications right when you start treatment, they may be able to eliminate more of these dormant infected cells. The study will measure both the safety of this approach and whether it actually shrinks the reservoir.

Standard HIV treatment works well at keeping the virus suppressed, but it cannot cure HIV because a reservoir of inactive virus remains hidden in certain cells and escapes the immune system. This medication aims to solve that problem by forcing these hidden infected cells to die, which could eventually make it possible to stop HIV treatment altogether rather than taking it for life.