Personalized gene therapy locks out HIV, paving the way to control virus without antiretroviral drugs
Thursday, March 6, 2014 - 11:00
in Health & Medicine
The immune cells of 12 HIV positive patients have been successfully genetically engineered by researchers to resist infection, and decrease the viral loads of some patients taken off antiretroviral drug therapy (ADT) entirely -— including one patient whose levels became undetectable. The study is the first published report of any gene editing approach in humans. "This study shows that we can safely and effectively engineer an HIV patient's own T cells to mimic a naturally occurring resistance to the virus, infuse those engineered cells, have them persist in the body, and potentially keep viral loads at bay without the use of drugs," said the senior author.