Stem Cells Engineered to Fight HIV

[furrbear]

Promising research. From insciences.org:

UCLA researchers demonstrate that stem cells can be engineered to kill HIV

Innovative strategy could be effective against other chronic viral diseases.

Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and colleagues have for the first time demonstrated that human blood stem cells can be engineered into cells that can target and kill HIV-infected cells — a process that potentially could be used against a range of chronic viral diseases.

The study, published Dec. 7 in the-peer reviewed online journal PLoS ONE, provides proof-of-principle — that is, a demonstration of feasibility — that human stem cells can be engineered into the equivalent of a genetic vaccine.

"We have demonstrated in this proof-of-principle study that this type of approach can be used to engineer the human immune system, particularly the T-cell response, to specifically target HIV-infected cells," said lead investigator Scott G. Kitchen, assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA AIDS Institute. "These studies lay the foundation for further therapeutic development that involves restoring damaged or defective immune responses toward a variety of viruses that cause chronic disease, or even different types of tumors."

Full InScience.org article

Journal article: Engineering Antigen-Specific T Cells from Genetically Modified Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Immunodeficient Mice.

Comments

[fogbear.livejournal.com]

I can hear it already:

No no NO!

Stem cells are evil! They come from murdered babies!!!

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Can we please just kill all the stupid fucking morons who don't even understand what stem cells are?

I'd like to see a cure for HIV before it or my diabetes kills me.

[cubdaddy.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we could clone the stem cells? Come to think of it (here's where my wicked marketing comes into play), we could hold a national lottery/powerball to encourage women to have abortions with the hope that their terminated jizzgremlins would be selected for cloning? Proactive population control and tactical resource management...everybody wins.

[bullethc.livejournal.com]

They are actually already working on cloning stem cells. There's been great strides in using amniotic stem cells also, you don't need a dead fetus to harvest those.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

I think Mike was practicing sarcasm. ;-)

[cubdaddy.livejournal.com]

That is truly amazing.

[mellowtigger]

That would be remarkable. We've never actually cured a virus before, have we? Prevented them, yes, but has anyone cured a viral infection already underway?

[snousle.livejournal.com]

What do you mean by "cured"? Most viral infections are permanently cleared by the immune system without treatment. Rabies can be prevented post-infection through a series of vaccines.

If you are talking about retroviruses like HIV, there is probably no outright cure, even in principle, since the virus becomes integrated into the nuclear genome of large numbers of cells, and infected cells that are not expressing the virus cannot be distinguished from uninfected cells. If a persistent immune response can be invoked against the virus, any expressed virus will be inactivated and symptoms might be completely prevented, but that would be long-term control rather than a cure per se.

[mellowtigger]

"Cure" in the sense that the administered substance destroys (permanently inactivates) existing virus rna inside a host cell.

Everything I know just "buys time" for the human immune system to do its work by either:

a) assaulting free virus to prevent future infections, accomplished by boosting the ability of the human immune system to identify the virus (innoculation with antibody) after new virus has been shed, or

b) slowing production of new virus within a cell by interfering with chemical mechanisms specific to the virus, hoping that the cell dies according to its own natural timeline before it can produce significant quantities of virus.

Regardless, the host human cell is still infected and therefore a source of outbreaks at some later date unless the immune system "does its thing" successfully on its own.

[bullethc.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this.

[s2dbaker.livejournal.com]

To think, we would be eight years further along in this research has Sandra Day O'Connor allowed Florida to count its votes.

[jediknightcub.livejournal.com]

Sounds promising.

Now, if only mandatory abortions could somehow be included in health care reform legislation, my pinko, communist, Marxist, homoheathen dreams will be fully realized!