I did more research and studied the article again. Cell Genesys has indeed been using T-cells programmed to go after HIV, which are first collected from the body. So it seems this new discovery could be important. In fact, CEGE is currently doing this in trials with plain T-cells (they haven't already given up like I thought), but it looks like they have only been having limited success, since they were planning on combining this T-cell therapy with anti-retroviral drugs, instead of -- dare I say it -- eliminating or "curing" AIDS.
However, as the new article suggests, there may be a way to boost the effectiveness of T-cell AIDS therapies by using the special "memory" type of T-cell to contain the modification which targets AIDS. Since the memory T-cell persists better in the body than the plain T-cell, effectiveness could be vastly increased.
This seems pretty exciting.
(from the Cell Genesys web page)
AIDS
Cell Genesys is conducting a 40-patient, multi-center Phase II trial in patients with undetectable HIV in their blood while receiving antiretroviral drug therapy. Using standard blood bank techniques, T cells are collected from patients with AIDS, genetically modified to recognize and destroy HIV-infected cells, expanded in number and then returned to the patient as a form of AIDS gene therapy. Cell Genesys' genetically modified cells target the cells which harbor HIV, in contrast to the commonly used antiretroviral drugs which do not eliminate such cells. Clinical data from an earlier Phase II trial, which was conducted in patients with detectable HIV in their blood, has shown no treatment-related safety problems, persistence of the genetically modified T cells for greater than 100 days following infusion and preliminary evidence of antiviral activity as measured by levels of HIV in gastrointestinal lymph tissue, a primary reservoir for HIV-infected cells. The company believes that the gene therapy and antiretroviral drug therapy could be combined and could potentially decrease the requirement for long term antiretroviral drug therapy. Data from this trial are expected to be reported during 1999. This program is supported by funding from the company's collaborator, Hoechst Marion Roussel.
(full page)
cellgenesys.com |
