University of Pennsylvania researchers are now developing a customised gene therapy to make people resistant to HIV infection while researchers in France are puzzled on how two HIV-infected men managed to live with HIV without developing AIDS symptoms. Will these discoveries unlock the importance of HIV DNA on creating an effective cure?

Modified Gene Therapy In Clinical Trials At The University Of Pennsylvania

Medical experts at the University of Pennsylvania used a modified gene therapy in a dozen HIV patients to put the virus into almost undetectable levels. The gene therapy involved the replication of the CCR5 delta32 mutation -- found in a very small population in Europe -- that resists HIV infection.

"People without CCR5, they are resistant to HIV, so what we do is we try to take patient who have HIV infection and remove the CCR5," explanation of Infectious Disease Specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Pablo Tebas quoted by WeAreCentralPA.

CCR5 is a protein found on the surface of white blood cells involved in immune response. Researchers took samples of white blood cells from HIV patients then modified them. Modification applied will cause CCR5 delta32 mutation that reduces CCR5 protein on the surface of white blood cells, preventing HIV to enter cells. These modified cells are reproduced under lab setting and frozen then infused back to HIV patients.

While it does not give the absolute idea of cure by eliminating each viral particle, it provides a way for an effective cure to completely put HIV in obsolete. Researchers noted that in most of the patients who underwent the procedure received significant spike in the modified cells as early as one week after the infusion.

Mysterious 'Spontaneous Cure' On Two HIV-Infected Men Puzzled Experts

Two HIV-infected men could have experienced a "spontaneous cure" after French scientists found an essential genetic mechanism in the works. Both men were infected by HIV but never developed AIDS symptoms which linked them to the group of HIV-infected people called "elite controllers" -- very few people who are infected with HIV but never develops AIDS.

According to Yahoo News, HIV on both men remained inside the immune cells and has been inactivated due to a mysterious genetic code alteration. It seems to be connected to "apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like" or APOBEC which is a family of conserved proteins which could have altered the genetic code of the virus.

Scientists are also considering the path of evolution between humans and HIV called "endogenisation," a phenomenon believed by experts that allowed humans to neutralise viruses in the past. Medical experts are now looking into the possible involvement of HIV DNA on creating an effective cure against it. As of today, Timothy Brown is the only person known which has been cured from HIV after receiving a bone marrow transplant from a donor resistant to the disease due to CCR5 delta32 mutation.