Eradication of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) appears to be getting closer to becoming a reality. A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) has developed a technology called “zinc finger nuclease” (ZFN), which is capable of searching for a specific DNA sequence and killing it. The results of this pioneering work have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine .
The method consists of “editing the genome”, eliminating some cells from the DNA sequence that encode the CCR5 gene , whose CCR5-delta32- mutation appears naturally in some people, making them immune to HIV infection (although only 1 % of the population has it). The “tool” used for this gene therapy is a synthetic protein developed by the Sangamo BioScience company, which, once inside the cell, is capable of locating a specific DNA sequence and eliminating it.
For the study, the researchers selected 12 HIV-positive patients who were undergoing treatment to control their HIV infection. Half of the medication they were taking was not withdrawn because they were in an advanced state of infection. All of them had their own genetically modified cells transferred, yes.
None of the patients had serious side effects and the modified cells were found to survive without problems in the presence of the virus. In patients who continued taking the medication, an increase in CD4s was observed, a marker that the immune system improves. In addition, four of the subjects who were withdrawn from treatment had a considerable decrease in the virus . Thus, this gene therapy offers great hope to achieve both the elimination of the virus and the definitive eradication of HIV.
