Green | November 07, 2008 | 47 comments

A doctor, a mutation and a potential cure for AIDS

source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html

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Gene therapy has always been a promising attempt at battling AIDS, and it looks like an accidental discovery during a bone marrow transplant for a Leukemia patient might just have uncovered the missing link to make it a truly effective method.

The gene therapy injects a DNA mutation that precludes a molecule from the surface of white blood cells. The molecule, dubbed CCR5, is required by the AIDS virus to invade the cells, so by removing it from the surface all together, the virus has no way of entering in the first place.

From the article:

"The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.

The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days."
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