Genetically engineered stem cell can kill HIV infected cells, claims US researchers

Creating a ray of hope in the field of AIDS treatment, US scientists for the first time reportedly claimed to become successful to kill HIV infected cells through human stem cells that are genetically engineered.

The researchers at UCLA in Los Angeles, California have claimed that genetically engineered human stem cells can seek out and kill HIV-infected cells in a living organism in mice.

According to lead scientist Scott G Kitchen, stems cells can be developed into immune cells through genetically engineering which seek and target HIV infected cells and suppress the virus in living tissues in an animal model.

The scientists found in their latest research that they can form mature T cells that can attack HIV in tissues where the virus resides and replicates.

Citing this the first step in the field of HIV treatment, scientists claimed that before applying to tests on human beings, we would have to cover a long distance.

Kitchen also specified that the process of attack may work differently in humans as in mice human immune cells reconstituted at a lower level in humanized mice than in humans, allowing the mice's immune systems to be almost completed restored.

Because of this, it could be that HIV mutates more slowly in mice than in humans. So perhaps when this type of approach is tested in humans, several T cell receptors should be used, to mount a stronger attack on what might be a higher pace of HIV mutation in humans.

The research was published in online open access journal PLoS Pathogens on March 12, 2012.

--With Agencies Inputs--