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GENE THERAPY
THE STATE OF THE ART
Dr. Abdel Aziz El Bayoumi
Professor of Genetics
Dr. Khalid Al Ali
Lecturer of Genetics
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Qatar, Doha
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11.1.2 Cellular Vehicles for HIV Gene Therapy
The cellular vehicles for gene therapy are hematopoietic stem cells, because these cells give
rise to all of the hematopoietic cell lineages and have the capacity of self-renewal.
Therefore provide long term protection.
The target cells for HIV –1 is CD4+ cells of the immune system including T cells and
macrophages. HIV action is associated with
progressive depletion of CD4+ T cells. A number
of the HIV gene therapy clinical trials have focused on ex vivo treatment of CD4+Tcells,
making them resistant to HIV infection, then infused into the patient.
The most commonly used vector delivery systems are both viral and non viral systems.
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