Gene therapy has given good results in patients with AIDS

2011/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika
• Mikrobiologia
• Medikuntza

For the first time, a treatment based on gene therapy has obtained good results against AIDS. The California clinic Sangamo BioSciences has presented treatment at the Congress of Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections of Boston.

The research is in the first phase of clinical tests, so in few patients it has been tested still, specifically in six men who perform the usual treatment with antiretroviral drugs. The drugs had a reduced number of viruses in the blood, but they were unable to increase the number of immune cells.

The study was conducted with an immune cell attacked by the AIDS virus, the CD4 + T cell. Researchers have taken these cells from each patient and blocked the CCR5 gene in their genome. In fact, researchers have taken into account that people with this mutated gene are resistant to AIDS, since the CCR5 gene encodes the protein that uses the virus to access the CD4+ T cell.

After blocking the gene, the cells have been returned to patients, which has led to an increase in five out of six patients. According to the researchers, repeating the treatment can become "a high number of resistant cells".

Some experts have stated that this method can replace conventional gene therapy, since it is more accurate than it (in practice the modified gene enters the genome and the researcher cannot completely control the change). However, there are also those who see contras, such as low efficiency and risk of side effects.