Scientists are genetically engineering the T cells of HIV victims in order to fight the infections. T cells have a receptor CCR5. People who have a mutation and are missing this receptor are naturally resistant to HIV. So scientists are modifying a patient's own harvested T cells by genetically removing the receptor and then infusing the cells back into the patient. Read the summary on ScienceDaily.com
"June and his colleagues, including Bruce L. Levine, PhD, the Barbara and Edward Netter Associate Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility at Penn, used the ZFN technology to modify the T cells in the patients -- a "molecular scissors," of sorts, to mimic the CCR5-delta-32 mutation. That rare mutation is of interest because it provides a natural resistance to the virus, but in only 1 percent of the general population. By inducing the mutations, the scientists reduced the expression of CCR5 surface proteins. Without those, HIV cannot enter, rendering the patients' cells resistant to infection."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140305191158.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_science+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+Science+News%29
