HIV CAR therapy was tested on mice
Scientists have created immune cells capable of fighting HIV
American molecular biologists modified the DNA of immune cells in such a way that they began to recognize cells infected with HIV and destroy them even before the virus has time to destroy immunity, and successfully tested their work on mice, according to an article published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
"We have shown for the first time that transgenic T cells can protect the animal body from the recurrence of infection after the use of antiretroviral drugs is stopped. Our next step is to transfer this technique of fighting HIV from the laboratory to clinical practice," said James Riley from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (in a press release Reengineered immune system cells show early promise against HIV – VM).
The immunodeficiency virus penetrates into human cells using a set of several proteins on the surface of its shell. Their structure and the structure of the hydrocarbon "shield" protecting them changes with each new generation of HIV, which forces the immune system to produce a new set of antibodies. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the virus becomes the winner in this "arms race", and the same feature prevents scientists from creating a vaccine or vaccination against HIV.
As immunologists explain, 3-4 years after HIV infection, the human immune system often begins to synthesize so-called broad-spectrum antibodies (bNAbs), capable of neutralizing several varieties of the virus at once. This does not help the body much, since by this time the infection will already have time to penetrate deeply into all the tissues of the body and go into the chronic stage.
Riley and his colleagues have found a way to "help" immune cells avoid a similar fate by embedding a special gene sequence in their DNA that will cause them to produce antibodies that can attach to HIV particles and make them "visible" to the immune system.
A similar approach, CAR therapy, is used today to fight cancer, and scientists have suggested that it can also be used to fight the immunodeficiency virus, which, like many types of cancer cells, can remain "invisible" to various components of immunity.
Guided by this idea, scientists extracted healthy T cells from the blood of several volunteers, which are usually infected with HIV, and treated them with a special retrovirus. He inserted a gene into them that contained instructions for the production of a special protein that causes infected cells to self-destruct upon contact with a similar T-cell.
The scientists tested the work of this "transgenic" immunity on mice with a "human" immune system previously infected with the immunodeficiency virus. As the first experiments showed, these cells initially did not actively neutralize the infection and often became its victim themselves, and therefore Riley's team had to modify their genetic "program" and increase its efficiency by 50 times so that it could effectively fight HIV.
The final version of their immune cells, as scientists note, fought infection better than the most successful antibodies produced by the body of people with record-high resistance to HIV, restraining its development throughout the life of animals. Biologists hope that the successful completion of their experiments opens the way for the clinical application of HIV CAR therapy in the near future.
As the researchers emphasize, these cells can suppress infection and prevent the depletion of the immune system, but they are not able to completely rid a person of HIV. The virus will remain in his body throughout his life, but the immune system will keep its presence at a minimally noticeable level.
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