(May 1, 2012) UC Davis Health System researchers are a step closer to launching human
clinical trials involving the use of an innovative stem cell therapy to fight
the virus that causes AIDS.
In a paper
published in the May issue of the Journal of Virology, the UC Davis HIV team
demonstrated both the safety and efficacy of transplanting anti-HIV stem cells
into mice that represent models of infected patients. The technique, which
involves replacing the immune system with stem cells engineered with a triple
combination of HIV-resistant genes, proved capable of replicating a normally functioning
human immune system by protecting and expanding HIV-resistant immune cells. The
cells thrived and self-renewed even when challenged with an HIV viral load.
"We
envision this as a potential functional cure for patients infected with HIV,
giving them the ability to maintain a normal immune system through genetic
resistance," said lead author Joseph Anderson, an assistant adjunct
professor of internal medicine and a stem cell researcher at the UC Davis
Institute for Regenerative Cures. "Ideally, it would be a one-time
treatment through which stem cells express HIV-resistant genes, which in turn
generate an entire HIV-resistant immune system."
To
establish immunity in mice whose immune systems paralleled those of patients
with HIV, Anderson and his team genetically modified human blood stem cells,
which are responsible for producing the various types of immune cells in the
body.