HIV infection is initiated when viral particles interact with susceptible cells.
ID: 64137 • Letter: H
Question
HIV infection is initiated when viral particles interact with susceptible cells. This interaction is mediated by viral proteins binding to receptors on lymphocytes and macrophages One of these receptors, CCR5, has a naturally occurring variant named CCR532 which prevents this interaction and hence confers resistance to HIV infection. It does not appear that this mutation has any detrimental consequences on individuals with this CCR532 allele. In lieu of a vaccine, how could you design a therapy to prophylactically make people resistant to HIV?
Explanation / Answer
Prophylactically therapy can be made by utilizing drugs or proteins which will modify the CCR5 receptor to CCR532 which is capable of preventing the host and virus cell interaction and there by providing resistance.
To infect immune cells, HIV must first bind to chemokine receptors. Researchers discovered in 1996 that people who had a naturally occurring mutation in their genes for one of these, CCR5, were strongly protected from developing AIDS—or even becoming infected in the first place—and suffered no ill effects from lacking the receptor.
Gene therapy for HIV resistance - Zinc finger nucleases that can bind to genes, clip their DNA, and repair mutations. But for the HIV gene therapy, they’ve created a nuclease to specifically disrupt the CCR5 gene in the same manner as the natural mutation. In the new trial, researchers will put the gene for this zinc finger nuclease into an adenovirus vector, transduce harvested CD4+ T cells of HIV-infected people, and infuse those cells back. The first gene-therapy experiment that aims to create a phenotype that’s known to confer disease resistance.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.