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In addition to helping to advance HIV cure research in Cameroon, this collaboration also provided an opportunity for lead author Chantal Emade Nkwelle to travel from Cameroon to work at Wistar for five months, learn many of Wistar's laboratory techniques on HIV research, and transfer them back to the University of Buea.

"This work demonstrates the value of global partnerships to the search for an HIV cure," said Luis Montaner, D.V.M.,

A collaboration between The Wistar Institute and the University of Buea in Cameroon has uncovered the mechanisms for a medicinal plant with anti-HIV potential in Croton oligandrus Pierre & Hutch, a species of African tree that has been used in traditional healing in Cameroon to treat a variety of diseases and conditions including cancers and diabetes.

"An effective cure will need to reach people around the world, and by leveraging traditional African ethnomedicine, we're making progress toward a cure with accessibility in mind."

Even with lifelong ART treatment, the virus remains latent in reservoirs throughout the body that can reactivate at any time, and over the long-term, these reservoirs can contribute to chronic inflammation and comorbidities.