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GENE THERAPY
03
IMMUNOTHERAPY
It is estimated that about 1% of the people in the world
are naturally immune to HIV. The reason is a genetic
mutation on the gene that encodes CCR5, a protein on
the surface of immune cells that the HIV virus uses to
enter and infect them. People with this mutation are
missing part of the CCR5 protein, making it impossible
for HIV to bind to it. Using gene therapy, it would, in
theory, be possible to edit our DNA and introduce this
mutation to stop HIV. In the future, gene therapy for HIV
could be done with CRISPR, a gene editing tool that is
much easier and faster to make. Its potential in HIV has
already been shown in vitro, and soon HIV could
become of the rst diseases to be cured with CRISPR.
04
What makes HIV so dangerous is that it attacks the
immune system, leaving people unprotected
against infections. But what if we could supercharge
immune cells to ght back? That's the reasoning
behind immunotherapies. Researchers reported
last year that thanks to an immunotherapy that
primes the immune system against the virus, 7 out
of 15 patients were cured. Their approach
combines a drug to activate the hidden HIV
reservoir with a vaccine that can induce an immune
response thousands of times stronger than usual.
WHEN WILL WE HAVE AN HIV CURE?
Although there are several approaches that could eventually bring a functional HIV cure, there are still
some challenges ahead. One of the biggest concerns around any HIV treatments is the virus’ ability to
quickly mutate and develop resistance, and for many of these new approaches there is still no data on
whether the virus will be able to become resistant.
So far, none of these functional cures have reached late-stage clinical testing, meaning it doesn’t seem
likely that we will meet the goal of having an HIV cure by 2020.
- Sayali Rane
|November 2018 | 36