Can Gene Therapy Offer a Permanent Solution for HIV?

New Delhi, June 26 (NationPress) Gene therapy could be a pivotal method for permanently silencing HIV, offering a lasting and durable treatment against the virus responsible for AIDS, as per a recent study.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States have discovered that a specific molecule within HIV can be manipulated and enhanced to induce long-term dormancy in the virus, a condition where HIV ceases to replicate.

This new research contributes to the expanding evidence which may assist scientists in creating a gene therapy that enhances the production of an “antisense transcript” (AST), according to Fabio Romerio, Associate Professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The study builds upon earlier findings indicating that AST is produced by HIV's genetic material and is a crucial part of a molecular pathway that effectively places the virus into dormancy, a state referred to as viral latency.

According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 39.9 million individuals living with HIV globally, with 630,000 deaths attributed to HIV-related illnesses each year.

The conventional treatment for HIV requires patients to take daily antiretroviral therapy, which prevents the virus from replicating and spreading. This medication must be taken indefinitely and comes with various short- and long-term side effects. In contrast, gene therapy could necessitate as little as a single dose.

Even after years of antiretroviral therapy, the virus can persist in cells and tissues throughout the body, rapidly spreading if the patient discontinues treatment, Romerio stated.

“Our objective is to discover a method to provide a lasting and durable treatment for HIV,” remarked Rui Li, a postdoctoral fellow in Romerio’s lab and the lead author of the paper published in the journal Science Advances.

Romerio highlighted that these new insights could pave the way for gene therapies that permanently enhance AST production in T cells of HIV-positive individuals, effectively putting the virus in a state of long-term dormancy.

To explore the role of AST in viral dormancy, scientists initially examined a human cell line of CD4+ T cells, the immune cells targeted by HIV to insert its genome and replicate.

The team genetically modified these T cells, which had been infected with HIV, to increase AST production by inserting a genetic element capable of generating multiple AST copies.

The researchers also investigated AST in CD4+ T immune cells obtained with consent from 15 HIV-positive individuals.

Employing a method to accurately assess whether HIV is dormant or active, the scientists discovered that the virus remained inactive in all cells for four days, after which the AST-expressing DNA degraded within the T cells.