Study into HIV 'Cure' Seeks Volunteers

San Francisco researchers led by Dr. Jacob Lalezari are looking for HIV-positive volunteers to participate in a groundbreaking study that uses gene therapy to modify patients' immune systems.

The study is based on work conducted in Germany on an HIV-positive man treated for leukemia. In 2007, the man received a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that eliminates the CCR5 protein from the immune system. Without CCR5, HIV is unable to enter and infect T-cells. Three years after the transplant, HIV is undetectable in the patient.

Lalezari, medical director at Quest Clinical Research and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, and his team are exploring a less invasive approach. Rather than undergo a costly and painful bone marrow transplant, volunteers will have their blood filtered to extract immune cells. Those cells will then be treated with a zinc finger nuclease that will remove the gene that produces the CCR5 protein. Following cultivation for about three months, a large dose of treated immune cells will be re-infused in the originating patient in the hope they "take root" and replace vulnerable cells.

The treatment is expected to be painless and carry a relatively low risk of side effects. By contrast, the patient in the German study received chemotherapy and immunosuppressive drugs to prevent transplant rejection.

Interested volunteers must fit a very specific profile. Researchers are looking for HIV-positive people who have not taken antiviral drugs in the last 12 weeks, who are negative for hepatitis B and C, and whose T-cell counts are higher than 500. For more information, contact Quest at 415-353-0800 or e-mail Lalezari at drjay@questclinical.com.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


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