I had to do a blogpost for assessment.
I also have to present this.
Like, tomorrow.
AIDS is one of the most well-known terminal illnesses in our world. There is currently no cure for the pandemic disease, which is caused by the retrovirus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Being a retrovirus, the HIV inserts its own genetic material into human host cells, usually human T cells in the blood, which causes the cells to manufacture more HIV viruses and die in the process. The loss of such cells weakens the host's immune system. The host usually dies in an opportunistic infection by another bacteria or virus, HIV is not directly lethal.
Image source UCLA Asia Institute, http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/images/hiv_virus.jpg
There is, however, hope for a cure. In June 2010, California-based City of Hope National Medical Center researchers showed that inserting genes that nullify HIV infection into immune stem cells and then re-planting the stem cells into the body allowed the stem cells to develop into HIV-resistant systems, in experiments with four male AIDS patients who also had cancer. This didn't benefit the patients significantly, but it did not have harmful side effects.
Previous studies involving altering stem cell genes have been conducted, however the stem cells did not survive long after re-insertion. "the team added three genes to the immune stem cells' DNA: one that cripples the CCR5 receptor that HIV exploits to enter the cell... and two others that disable viral genes and prevent HIV from copying itself", reports John Cohen from ScienceNOW. Molecular geneticist Rossi believes that inserting only modified instead of a mix of modified and unmodified stem cells will result in a more effective procedure.
The researchers hope to further explore this concept and improve it to at least a better treatment to improve the quality of life for AIDS patients, if not curing AIDS completely.
The article can be found at this link.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/06/can-gene-therapy-cure-aids.html?ref=hp
Peiyuan Li
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