Could We Reprogram Immune System To Beat HIV Without Bone Marrow Transplant From A Donor With An Anti-HIV Gene Configuration?

According to media reports this week, an American patient living in Germany and suffering with both leukemia and HIV was apparently cured of both conditions following a bone marrow transplant from a unique donor. The donor possessed a very rare genetic variation that makes it difficult for HIV to enter into his healthy cells. In essence, by transplanting bone marrow from this particular donor to the HIV positive patient, the patient developed a new immune system capable of fending off HIV.

Bone marrow transplants might not be the most efficacious, or comfortable, means of rebuilding an immune system that can contend with HIV. However, there are other means of reprogramming the immune system, and without putting the patient's life at greater risk. Vaccines offer one such approach, but one thus far proven ineffective and even detrimental for those at risk of contracting HIV. Vaccines reprogram the immune system by triggering it to generate antibodies to proteins, or antigens, on the surface of viruses.

Because HIV gets inside of healthy cells so fast, there is little time for the antibodies to do their part, diminishing the ultimate value of vaccines for this disease. The recent failure of Merck's vaccine, V520, in which the risk of contracting HIV increased after vaccination, is a testament to the limited utility of vaccines for HIV.

Fortunately, antibodies are not the only means of reprogramming the immune system.

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