The cancer immunotherapy could treat HIV

The cancer immunotherapy could treat HIV -

One type of immunotherapy that has shown promise against cancer could also be used against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

in a study published July 11 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Virology , researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and the AIDS Research Center revealed that recently discovered potent antibodies can be used to generate a specific type of cell known as antigen receptor chimeras, or RAC, which can be used to kill cells infected with HIV-1.

RAC are artificially created immune T cells that have been modified to produce receptors on their surface that are designed to target and kill specific cells containing viruses or tumor proteins. chimeric receptors are being researched on how immunotherapy gene can be used to fight against cancer. But they could also be used to create a strong immune response against HIV, said Dr. Otto Yang, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and corresponding author of the study .

Although the immune system of the human body first responds to and attack HIV, pure virus attack - its ability to hide in the different T cells and replicate quickly - possibly use and destroys the immune system, leaving the body vulnerable to a variety of infections and diseases. The researchers looked for ways to strengthen the immune system against HIV, and now it seems RAC could be a weapon in this fight.

"We took new antibody production and artificial engineered T cell receptors to reprogram killer T cells to kill cells infected with HIV," said Yang, who is also director of the vaccine and research of the pathogenesis of AIDS Institute and the AIDS research Center. "others have used antibodies against cancer antigens to T cell receptor against the artificial cancer and showed that this is useful in the treatment of cancer. "UCLA is the first to design the strategy for HIV.

Although the approach of the receivers has been in use for almost 10 years to the fight against cancer, it ' is the first attempt to use the technique to treat HIV since 15 years ago, when experiments were unsuccessful. the new research is different because it takes advantage of new antibodies that have been discovered in recent years. In previous tests, the researchers used an early type based antibody that was not. This approach, however, was abandoned because it was clinically ineffective.

Here, the researchers used seven recently discovered "neutralizing antibodies broad spectrum" that have the ability to link multiple strains of invading viruses, in contrast to previously isolated antibodies that tend to some BIND strains. These antibodies were redesigned artificial cell CAR-T receivers to have activity against the major strains of HIV. in laboratory tests, the researchers found that all seven had various ability levels to direct the killer T cells to proliferate and kill and suppress viral replication in response to cells infected with HIV.

Yang noted that "what works in a test tube does not necessarily work in a person," the next step is to find strategies to put these receptors in humans. But this therapy shows enough promise to go ahead with further research.