UCLA Medical Center announced in a recently published article on PLoS One that Stem Cells could be used to target and eradicate HIV at the genetic level.
A recent publication at PLoS One, a peer-lead and reviewed scientific website, provides a proof of concept that scienctists could modify stem cells to create a type of genetic vaccine that would target HIV. This type of "vaccine" could be used to erradicate other types of viral diseases as well.
The scientist would take stem cells and create mature HIV-specific CD8+ cells that would then be capable of recognizing and killing 'viral antigen-presenting cells', i.e. HIV.
"We have demonstrated in this proof-of-principle study that this type of approach can be used to engineer the human immune system, particularly the T-cell response, to specifically target HIV-infected cells," lead investigator Scott Kitchen, assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology at the Devid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said in a release.
With the moderate success of the vaccine trial in Thailand earlier this year it is most definitely a welcome advance on a disease that has killed millions and affects even more people on a daily basis.
Keep your eye on this story!
Filed under: AIDS, Community, Health
Tags: aids, healthy, hiv, plos one, proof of concept, UCLA medical center, vaccine, WBTD archives
