Safety and practicality of an excisional lymph node study driving HIV cure research in South Africa

AI Summary

This study describes how a team in South Africa safely collected lymph node tissue from volunteers to help advance research aimed at curing HIV. Lymph nodes are important parts of the body’s immune system where HIV can hide and studying them can give deeper insight into how the virus persists despite treatment. Researchers developed a procedure to remove lymph nodes during a short, minimally invasive surgery using only local anaesthesia. Over several years, they performed 181 such procedures, and most samples (138) were suitable for detailed research.

The surgery was quick, took less than 30 minutes, and most people healed within about a week. Discomfort was generally mild, and most participants could resume regular activities the next day. Only a small number (about 5.5%) experienced minor issues like swelling or slow wound healing, and these resolved within two weeks. No serious complications were reported.

The team showed that with careful planning, safety checks, and support before and after the procedure, obtaining lymph node samples for research is both feasible and safe. Having access to these tissues allows scientists to better understand how HIV stays hidden in the body and how immune cells behave in this environment, which could help in developing more effective strategies to eliminate the virus.