Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
PR Newswire, 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019 - Wednesday October 1 12:37 PM EDT
This study, by Si.-Yi Chen, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of cancer biology, and his colleagues, describes how a critical co-receptor on the surface of particular white blood cells called lymphocytes is inactivated, making the cells immune to infection by HIV-1.
Chen's advance is based on the critical role of chemokine receptors on the surface of the lymphocyte as the doorway B or co-receptor B for the HIV invasion into lymphocytes.
After virus invasion, the steps in the development of AIDS follow: multiplication of the virus in the infected cells, the death of the infected cells, progeny virus spreading to other normal lymphocytes, the decline of the disease-fighting lymphocytes and the progression to AIDS..
Last year, a genetic defect in a chemokine coreceptor was found to protect individuals with this defect from HIV-1 infection. Chen and his colleagues set out to mimic this natural resistance of the genetically defective individuals.
They designed a novel approach, termed "intracellular chemokine" - intrakine for short - to genetically inactivate the co-receptor by preventing it from ever reaching the cell surface. Hence there is no place on which the HIV-1 virus can land to infect the cell.
"The genetically modified lymphocytes are immune to T-tropic virus infection but appear to maintain normal biological activities," he said.
Chen said that in treating people with AIDS or HIV infection, if the process proves out, human lymphocytes would be removed from an infected patient, genetically modified with intrakine, and periodically reinfused back into patients to delay or prevent the disease progression. Since genetically modified lymphocytes live for months, "this gene-based intrakine therapy should have a potent and long-lasting anti-HIV effect."
Our full press release is available at http://www.bgsm.edu/newsdesk/hotcopy.shtml. An Online News Conference to discuss this major development will take place from 1-3 p.m. today at "aidschat.bgsm.edu" on the Internet. This Conference facility requires the use of a JavaScript-enabled browser such as Netscape 3.01 or Internet Explorer 3.0 (or above).
For further information, contact Robert Conn, Mark Wright or Jim Steele at 910-716-4587.
SOURCE Bowman Gray School of Medicine
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