Scientists are researching a strategy called ‘shock and kill’. The idea is to wake up dormant CD4 T-cells. As soon as these cells become active, the body can identify and eliminate them.
The main question is: where are the dormant cells and how do you wake them up?
Researchers now know that these CD4 T-cells hide in many different parts of the body. Such as in the gut or lymph nodes, or even in the brain. That’s why treatment needs to be developed that can reach every part of the body and activate the dormant cells there. Then all of them can be cleared from the body. This is a simplification of how a complicated approach like this actually works.
Researchers are continually confronted with problems in applying the technique. For example, not all drugs reach the dormant cells in the brain because of the body’s extra protection there (the blood-brain barrier). They have also not yet succeeded in waking up all the dormant CD4 cells.