Supercharging Immune Cells May Help Control HIV Long-Term

"As part of a clinical trial, scientists took people's own immune cells and reprogrammed them in a lab to recognize and attack HIV in the body. After a single infusion of the modified cells, two individuals with HIV now have undetectable levels of the virus-one for nearly two years and the other for almost a year. Both have been able to go off HIV medications entirely."

"The two people are part of a small study to test the treatment's safety and feasibility. The initial findings were announced last week at the of American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy annual meeting in Boston. "These are early days. If we can provide the proof-of-concept that this approach is both safe and effective, then there are lots of ways in which it can be optimized, to make it more affordable and scalable," says Steven Deeks, a professor of medicine and HIV expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the trial."

"The technique, known as CAR-T cell therapy, has been used in tens of thousands of patients with tough-to-treat cancers. Half a dozen or so drugs have been approved that rely on the technique. The treatment essentially supercharges a person's immune system to directly attack and eliminate cancer cells. Recently, it's also been used successfully to treat severe autoimmune diseases."

""This is pretty exciting," says Andrea Gramatica, vice president of research at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, who was not involved in the trial. "The reason this study matters and is particularly important is because it gives the HIV field a real, clinical clue that teaching the immune system to control the virus without antiretroviral therapy is achievable.""

Scientists reprogrammed patients’ own immune cells in a lab to recognize and attack HIV, then infused the modified cells once. Two individuals with HIV achieved undetectable viral levels for nearly two years and almost one year. Both individuals stopped HIV medications entirely. The treatment is being tested in a small clinical study focused on safety and feasibility. CAR-T cell therapy has previously been used in large numbers of cancer patients and has also been used for severe autoimmune diseases. Early results suggest the immune system can be taught to control HIV without ongoing antiretroviral therapy, with potential for future optimization, affordability, and scalability.

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