Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc.; Wednesday July 1, 4:35 pm EST
Gene therapy has never been shown to truly work in people. The idea behind it is to add a gene to produce the right body chemicals to correct a defect, or to genetically alter a cell to make it work better.
In the case of HIV, Dr. Robert Walker and colleagues at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) are trying to get the patient's immune systems to work better.
They recruited 30 pairs of twins, one who has HIV and the other who does not. They took immune system cells known as T-cells from the healthy twin and genetically altered them, adding an extra receptor that helps the cells recognize and attack HIV.
They then infused these genetically altered T-cells into the HIV-infected twin. Once they got the right mix of CD4 and CD8 cells -- the "helper" and "killer" T-cells -- the genetically engineered cells lasted for more than three months in the blood, and even proliferated or reproduced.
"Although these results are preliminary, they're encouraging enough for us to take the next step in studying this approach," Walker said in a statement. Phase I trials are not meant to test whether a treatment works. More trials must be held to see if the T-cells are actually battling the virus.
The findings were presented at the 12th International AIDS Conference in Geneva and a related study is reported in the journal Nature Medicine.
The NIAID, one of the National Institutes of Health, is working with California-based Cell Genesys (CEGE - news) on the experimental technique. Cell Genesys plans to test patients using their own cells.
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