Comments on: Instead of an HIV Vaccine, What About HIV Gene Therapy?

By: TheCritic

TheCritic — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 01:11:50 +0000

The reason such a “vaccine” would work is different than why regular vaccines won’t. Antibodies floating through the blood stream are much more available than B and T cells and macrophages. If the antibodies cover the virus (opsonization) before it can get to the T cells it affects (by way of inserting itself into the cell through attachment to certain a certain cell receptor that most HIV strains use) then the virus would not be able to enter the cell. Sure, the different strains mutate quite frequently in the body, but they must actually enter a cell and reproduce to mutate. HIV doesn’t just float around and suddenly change its RNA.

As far as to someone who has had it for 35 years now and in full health. That isn’t evidence for thousands of strains. There are only four that are known to be common. Of these 4, it is not UNcommon for their to be some level of resistance to two of them. This is the idea behind some genetic therapy to give people a certain mutation that alters the T-cell receptor HIV uses to get into the cell. People with this mutation can be exposed to HIV and remain uninfected.

What’s important when analyzing research like this is not in looking for ways in which it shouldn’t work. The research shows it was effective, so giving reasons as to why it shouldn’t be effective is fruitless.

By: haversham

haversham — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:42:10 +0000

Yes, although this is a potential cure and not just beating the virus back with drugs. If the body is actively making antibodies, you could feasibly reduce the viral load to almost nothing. Pair this treatment with a round of antivirals and it becomes even more feasible. Less HIV flare ups within the body generally leads to a longer life expectancy. Even if a gene therapy has to be made for each individual person, would they be willing to pay the necessary 10 to 15 thousand dollars to prolong their life by years? My guess would be yes.

By: Templar 7

Templar 7 — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:59:06 +0000

All I know is that I know someone who has had HIV for 35 years now, and is still fully functional and in full health. There is probably thousands of strains of HIV, and in a way it each individual case is it’s own strain.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:53:34 +0000

the idea is to use recently identified neutralizing antibodies that react against the many different strains of HIV that are floating around in the world. Because the virus evolves within a given patient it is difficult to design a vaccine that will make antibodies that can block the many slight variations of HIV that might come from different individuals. If the antibodies serve their purpose then you don’t have to worry about the virus mutating because it will prevent HIV from taking hold in the patient and acquiring mutations to evade antibody mediated protection.

The real concern here is whether free virions (that is HIV that exists in the blood or semen outside of an actual carrier lymphocyte or antigen presenting cell) is the primary culprit for causing new infections. Work from the same group that published this story indicates that most HIV infection occurs from direct cell to cell transmission making an antibody based approach obsolete (since the antibodies don’t enter into live cells and thus would not be able to block an infectious virus unless it is floating outside of the cells.

Nonetheless the idea is very interesting and I hope that we will see this tested very soon in non-human primates or in human clinical trials.

By: Jehan

Jehan — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 10:29:39 +0000

Many people are leery of bioengineered (genetically modified )foods. The Europeans banned them. But here we have people who want to bioengineer … people! And this is all for a disease that is totally preventable without any drugs. We could wipe out the pandemic solely by behavior modification. Instead it urged that we overthrow the whole cosmos to benefit one small group of people. Before penicillin people coped with the syphilis epidemic in Columbian Europe with behavior modification. They became prudish. As a result the disease mutated & became less virulent. When the disease 1st hit flesh literally fell off people. the change in social mores by enough people put a severe stress on the syphilis that cause certain stain to die out. We can end AIDS in 2o years without spending more money if we just accept monogamy.
But to delay gratification is anathema now isn’t it.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:30:17 +0000

I agree with Diana. Surley the gene would be obselete as soon as the HIV mutates.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:26:07 +0000

I’m with Dianna. Seems the gene would become obselete when the virus mutates again.

By: Angie

Angie — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:15:29 +0000

This is awesome! Even though it might be hard to get the gene therapy done I still think this is very possible. Maybe within the next 10 years or so if scientists still keep working on this gene therapy, they’ll be able to use it on humans.

By: Diana

Diana — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:00:56 +0000

Why would gene therapy be effective? If I’m not wrong, HIV’s surface proteins change shape every now and then. Doesn’t this make targeting them via antibodies especially tough?