Gene therapy is a process by which scientists take a cell and alter its genes in a specific way to control how it acts, called an antisense virus. For HIV, researchers from the VIRxSYS Corporation, took an HIV virus, and removed much of its DNA, replacing it with new genes that, theoretically, would stop the virus from causing damage in the cell.
In the first test of this new treatment, researchers recruited five patients with AIDS who had begun to develop resistance to standard treatment. Each patient had a set number of infected cells removed and re-infected with the manipulated form of the virus. Then, the researchers infused these cells back into the patient.
Two to three years later, four of the five patients in the study had stable or improved immune systems and in three, the viral load had been suppressed. Moreover, none of the patients involved in the study showed any serious side effects from the treatment.
“The results from this Phase I trial are encouraging—particularly because these are late-stage patients—and demonstrate that gene therapy has the potential to treat HIV and other serious human disease,” said June.
The researchers caution, however, that their results are very preliminary and merely give them the green light to test this treatment further.
