Can HIV be used to cure leukemia?

[fourier jr]

This is pretty incredible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbNSG80B12Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw-12Qf3bM4

If anyone knows the details why not give them here

 

[Evo]

The protocol for the new treatment involves removing patients' cells through an apheresis process similar to blood donation, and modifying them in Penn's cell and vaccine production facility. Scientists there reprogram the patients' T cells to target tumor cells through a gene modification technique using a HIV-derived lentivirus vector. The vector encodes an antibody-like protein, called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), which is expressed on the surface of the T cells and designed to bind to a protein called CD19.

The modified cells are then infused back into the patient's body following lymphodepleting chemotherapy. Once the T cells start expressing the CAR, they focus all of their killing activity on cells that express CD19, which includes CLL and ALL tumor cells, and normal B cells. All of the other cells in the patient that do not express CD19 are ignored by the modified T cells, which limits systemic side effects typically experienced during traditional therapies.

continued...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121210080837.htm

 

[Drakkith]

Oh my god, that's amazing!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

The next age in medicine will be very exciting. I bet just 10 years ago listening to this story would seem like science fiction!

 

[gravenewworld]

the media hype over “HIV” based cancer therapies is misleading – the lentivirus used was really only a gene delivery vehicle (in theory, other non-viral based methods could have been used just as easily)

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Note that these news stories are followups on procedures reported in the scientific literature about a year ago. See https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=529934 for more information.

 

[Monique]

the media hype over “HIV” based cancer therapies is misleading – the lentivirus used was really only a gene delivery vehicle (in theory, other non-viral based methods could have been used just as easily)

Exactly, with the exception that HIV targets T-cells and is thus the logical choice of virus for the cell type.

 

[Drakkith]

Exactly, with the exception that HIV targets T-cells and is thus the logical choice of virus for the cell type.

It's exciting because it's the HIV virus and not some other virus no one knows about really. We've taken a widespread and terrible disease and used it against another disease. That's exciting! Similarly discovering an exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri system shouldn't have been that exciting. After all, we've discovered hundreds already and this one isn't much different. But the fact that it's the closest star system to our own MAKES IT EXCITING!

 

[Monique]

It's great how excited you are
And I agree it is, good science is always exciting. This sure is a good way to get funding for a project, "I'm going to use HIV to cure cancer".

 

[Ygggdrasil]

https://xkcd.com/938/

 

[Monique]

haha

 

[Drakkith]

Hahaha!

 

[dimensionless]

It is ironic, since a bone marrow transplant(to treat leukemia) from an HIV-resistant donor is the only means by which an HIV infection has been cured.