Engineered Stem Cells Seek Out and Kill HIV In Mice

An anonymous reader writes "Expanding on previous research providing proof-of-principle that human stem cells can be genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells, a team of UCLA researchers have now demonstrated that these cells can actually attack HIV-infected cells in a living organism. From the article: 'This most recent study shows that scientists can manipulate stem cells — immature cells that can develop into any type of cell — by implanting genes, turning it into killer T cells which can kill the virus in living mice. While the mouse form of HIV is not exactly the same as it is in humans, the infection and progression closely mimic the virus in humans, and eliminating it is a huge step forward, researchers said.'"

Re:Waste of money

[million_monkeys]

What do you mean AIDS gets all the pub? Cancer wins 2:1 [googlefight.com]

Re:If this leads to a cure for Human HIV...

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't count on this being a cure. More likely it will just be a better treatment. One of the reasons that HIV is so hard to cure is that it "hides" by infecting cells that then lie dormant for a long time before they start producing new HIV. This means that even if you can kill all of the active HIV virus, new ones will pop up in the apparently cured patient. I would expect that this treatment would have the same drawback.

Maybe not

[NotSoHeavyD3]

I mean the article isn't very clear but I wouldn't think you'd need embryonic stem cells for this. I'd think a hematopoietic stem cell should work since they're the ones that turn into Killer-T cells. Anyway that's what they're transplanting when they give you a bone marrow transplant. Admittedly bone marrow transplant is basically one of the most dangerous medical procedures they can do to you so hopefully this means they'll be able to do a safer version of this transplant. Hey, any medical researchers here to let us know which kind of stem cell they're talking about?