A major breakthrough has been made in the treatment of AIDS and HIV, with scientists saying that a new cell therapy has proven effective in patients.
According to Reuters, a new study has found that a one time cell therapy may help control HIV infection. The research showed that a patient’s own immune cells were re engineered to detect and destroy the virus, and early human trials successfully controlled the infection.
However, researchers said more studies are needed to confirm the results and determine which patients may benefit the most from the treatment.
The Phase One trial used CAR-T therapy, a one time treatment technique in which a patient’s T-cells are removed from the body, modified and multiplied in a laboratory, and then infused back into the body. In this study, the CAR-T cells were designed to target HIV’s CD4 and CCR5 binding sites.
If left untreated, the HIV virus multiplies in the body and destroys infection fighting cells, eventually progressing into Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Around 41 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and although advances in antiretroviral therapy have made the infection manageable, treatment must continue for life.
Researchers said that in the past, some cancer patients treated for HIV received bone marrow cells from individuals carrying a rare natural mutation resistant to the HIV virus. However, the new CAR-T therapy is different and could potentially be used to treat a larger number of patients.
Dr. Boro Dropulic, Executive Director of Caring Cross, said, “Our goal is to make these therapies affordable and accessible.” Researchers from University of California San Francisco, University of California Davis, and Case Western Reserve University Hospital also participated in the study.
According to the research, two out of three patients who received the standard CAR-T dose maintained extremely low or undetectable levels of HIV even after stopping antiretroviral medicines. One of these patients has remained stable for more than two years, while the other has shown improvement for nearly a year. In the third patient, the virus initially rebounded but later remained at a low yet detectable level.
Three other patients included in the study did not receive the chemotherapy usually used to prepare the bone marrow before reinfusion of the cells, while another three patients were given a lower dose of CAR-T therapy.
Dr. Steven Deeks, professor at the University of California San Francisco and the study’s lead researcher, said that the two patients who had stopped HIV medication for the longest period and remained in good condition had been diagnosed very early and received immediate treatment.
He explained that antiretroviral therapy freezes the virus in place so it cannot mutate, while also protecting the body’s immune system from the severe effects of HIV. Dr. Deeks said further work is now underway to understand why some patients responded positively.
He said, “The CAR-T cells disappeared after a few weeks, so we are trying to identify possible mechanisms to explain this.”
Currently, CAR-T treatment is available for several types of blood cancer, while it is also being developed for autoimmune diseases such as lupus and scleroderma. According to Dr. Deeks, “Cancer patients usually carry a much heavier disease burden, and CAR-T cells generally remain in the body for a longer period.”
He further said that HIV trial patients did not experience the severe side effects commonly seen in cancer patients receiving CAR-T therapy, including the intense inflammatory reaction known as cytokine release syndrome.
The findings of the study were scheduled to be presented on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy in Boston.
