Trial Begins for HIV Gene Therapy

[JackBeck]

Gene therapy that could immunize people against the most common type of HIV is ready to be tested on humans.

Recruiting for the trial began Tuesday, and the first people to receive the experimental treatment will be HIV patients with drug-resistance problems.

"We do have good treatments for HIV. That has been one of the most successful stories of the last 20 years in medicine," said http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/idd/Tebas.html">Pablo Tebas, an infectious disease expert at the University of Pennsylvania.

(snip)

The procedure is simple: Take some healthy T-cells out of an HIV patient, clip out their CCR5 genes, grow more of these clipped T-cells in a dish, and then put them back in the patient.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/hivtreatment.html

This is quite a breakthrough if proven successful. One of the newer drugs we have on the market is called Selzentry, a CCR5 inhibitor, which prevents HIV from entering the CD4/T-Cell. I like explaining the name of the drug to clients and providers as being pretty easy to remember as "Cell Entry". You need to have HIV that uses the CCR5 chemokine receptor to attach to the T-cell in order to use this drug (sort of like grabbing onto a door handle, before sticking the key in, in order to unlock the door before entering). If HIV uses the CXCR4, or a combo of both, this drug is useless.

Now they're looking at going in even deeper to prevent zinc fingers from helping to form the CCR5 receptor to begin with? Amazing how far and how quickly we've come with genetic science. Imagine how much more we'd know if the last 8 years were different.

[krispos42]

1. What is Mr. Therapy accused of?

:-)

[MarcMus]

2. Immunizing?

Will this "cure" current patients, or just immunize the ones who don't have HIV?

[JackBeck]

3. This trial is looking at taking T-cells out of someone who is HIV-positive

T-cells which they term as "healthy", meaning these T-cells have not encountered HIV, removing the CCR5 receptor, grow more T-cells without the CCR5 receptor, and placing them back inside that HIV-positive individual to see the results.

HIV can use a healthy T-cell to make hundreds of new HIV. The T-cell is also the "general" of the immune system, meaning in essence, they're the ones in charge, doling out directions to other cells to create an immune response. In theory, this trial is looking at what will happen in persons that are positive if millions of new T-cells are introduced that HIV can't use to make copies anymore.