HIV Functional Cure - Are We Any Closer To It?
Curing HIV and AIDS is the goal-hence the name HIV Eradication-and further research efforts are bringing us ever closer to making that happen.
Gene therapy and zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) are avenues being explored now to see if we can truly heal AIDS and cure people with the disease.
The idea behind gene therapy came about after an AIDS patient was seemingly cured of the disease after receiving donor bone marrow transplant from a person with a chromosomal deletion conferring resistance to HIV.
Doctors are hoping that even if gene therapy doesn't completely cure AIDS, it can stabilize the disease to the point where those with it won't have to take medication.
An HIV functional cure could be on the horizon.
In this kind of research, ZFN are used to artificially disrupt the co-receptor in CD4 cells that HIV uses to infect cells.
The research attempts to answer the following hypothesis: Can modifying an HIV patient's own CD4 cells lead to the production of HIV-resistant cells in the future? This particular receptor is of interest to researchers because there are actually people out there who are resistant to contracting HIV.
About 2% of those of northern European descent have a deletion in the CCR5 receptor gene that makes many of them almost resistant to HIV infection.
Could this lead to an HIV functional cure? In order to test this out, an HIV patient also stricken with leukemia was given a stem cell transplant using donor cells from a person with this rare genetic mutation.
This transplant is commonly performed on people with leukemia, but it had the additional benefit of eliminating the patient's HIV.
Let's repeat that-a stem cell transplant cured an HIV patient of his HIV.
Several years later, the patient is still HIV-free.
This is extraordinary news, but it has flown completely under the radar.
HIV gene therapy is a remarkable scientific breakthrough, and it can lead to an HIV functional cure in the very near future.
By exploiting a rare genetic mutation that only a small percentage of the world's population possesses, this could be the news that those who want to rid the world of HIV forever want to hear.
Of course, extensive testing needs to be done in this area, which is why it's so important that funding continue for the efforts of the doctors and researchers who devote their time and knowledge toward finding a legitimate cure for HIV.
Gene therapy and zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) are avenues being explored now to see if we can truly heal AIDS and cure people with the disease.
The idea behind gene therapy came about after an AIDS patient was seemingly cured of the disease after receiving donor bone marrow transplant from a person with a chromosomal deletion conferring resistance to HIV.
Doctors are hoping that even if gene therapy doesn't completely cure AIDS, it can stabilize the disease to the point where those with it won't have to take medication.
An HIV functional cure could be on the horizon.
In this kind of research, ZFN are used to artificially disrupt the co-receptor in CD4 cells that HIV uses to infect cells.
The research attempts to answer the following hypothesis: Can modifying an HIV patient's own CD4 cells lead to the production of HIV-resistant cells in the future? This particular receptor is of interest to researchers because there are actually people out there who are resistant to contracting HIV.
About 2% of those of northern European descent have a deletion in the CCR5 receptor gene that makes many of them almost resistant to HIV infection.
Could this lead to an HIV functional cure? In order to test this out, an HIV patient also stricken with leukemia was given a stem cell transplant using donor cells from a person with this rare genetic mutation.
This transplant is commonly performed on people with leukemia, but it had the additional benefit of eliminating the patient's HIV.
Let's repeat that-a stem cell transplant cured an HIV patient of his HIV.
Several years later, the patient is still HIV-free.
This is extraordinary news, but it has flown completely under the radar.
HIV gene therapy is a remarkable scientific breakthrough, and it can lead to an HIV functional cure in the very near future.
By exploiting a rare genetic mutation that only a small percentage of the world's population possesses, this could be the news that those who want to rid the world of HIV forever want to hear.
Of course, extensive testing needs to be done in this area, which is why it's so important that funding continue for the efforts of the doctors and researchers who devote their time and knowledge toward finding a legitimate cure for HIV.
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