Gene therapy could replace a lifetime of antirterovirals

The study was carried out on 74 people and the results were published in Nature Medicine. The therapy was shown to be safe and to reduce the effect of the virus on the immune system.

Antiretroviral treatment has transformed the lives of people living with HIV, but it must be taken for life, has side effects and the virus is rapidly developing resistance to most of the drug classes used.

The latest therapy involves giving patients blood stem cells modified to carry a molecule called OZ1, which is designed to stop HIV reproducing itself by targeting two key proteins.

The patients in the trial either received the therapy, or a dummy treatment.
After 48 weeks the researchers found there was no statistically significant difference in the amount of HIV circulating in the blood of the two groups of patients.

However, after 100 weeks the patients who received the gene therapy had higher levels of CD4+ cells - the key cells of the immune system which are specifically destroyed by HIV.

However, the research is still very new and many further studies will be required to see if this is a potential treatment area.