Double whammy gene therapy clears HIV from body

OP - September 22, 2011, 10:52 PM

This is a good one. If this works, we'll be able to screw anyone without worrying about ending up dead. dance

Double whammy gene therapy clears HIV from body

Quote from: New Scientist

A person with HIV who didn't take antiretroviral drugs for three months remained free of the virus, thanks to a groundbreaking gene therapy. The success raises the prospect of keeping HIV in check permanently without antiretrovirals.

The gene therapy works by locking the virus out of the CD4 white blood cells it normally infects. Of six people with HIV given the treatment, one cleared the virus completely and another two saw 10-fold drops in circulating virus.

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To deliver the treatment, doctors remove blood from the patient and isolate CD4 and other white blood cells. Specialised molecular "scissors" called zinc finger proteins enter the cells and sabotage a gene called CCR5, which makes a protein that helps HIV to enter cells. It is unclear what role CCR5 plays normally, although researchers know that cells can survive without it ? and will remain uninfected by HIV.

These cells are then returned to the patient in the hope that they will multiply and provide a permanent source of cells immune to HIV, potentially locking out HIV completely. The link between CCR5 and HIV was first suggested in 1996. The concept was first tested inadvertently in Germany in 2006, when a person with leukaemia who was also HIV positive received a bone marrow transplant that happened to come from someone whose blood cells couldn't make CCR5 proteins. The patient was HIV-free by 2008.

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