Australian HIV Trial

[Hoyland]

Prof Anthony Kelleher's team at the Kirby Institute, UNSW is seeking to start clinical trials for an siRNA treatment for HIV. Prof Kelleher was a collaborator, along with Calimmune on the, Promoter Targeting shRNA Suppresses HIV-1 Infection In vivo Through Transcriptional Gene Silencing, paper.

http://www.nature.com/mtna/journal/v2/n12/full/mtna201364a.html

Even though his work is described as siRNA, I actually think it is a parallel study to Calimmune's. (Calimmune has recently advertised for a Clinical Trial Manager and so it is possible that these two programs are really one and the same but that is not certain.)

A report says,

Professor Kelleher and his team are interested in developing alternatives to long-term medications and are looking at genes of HIV and the immune system for a possible solution. The team has just recently received ethics clearance to start clinical trials using siRNAs (small interfering RNAs) to degrade the CCR5 gene receptor for HIV. This method aims to stop expression of the HIV genes (silencing) which stops the virus particles from replicating7 (Figure 3). This will remove the viral reservoir, but the genes will still be present in the patient’s genome. This method has been effective for other viruses, such as Human Papilloma Virus, Polio, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, and oncogenes have also been silenced using this method8,9.

and

Another research group has shown that treatment with siRNAs works to silence an HIV-type virus in mice11. The next step is for Professor Kelleher’s team to try the treatment with a small group of HIV patients:

1)Identify HIV+ patients currently taking anti-viral drugs to suppress the virus;
2)Treat with siRNA therapy; and
3)Stop anti-viral treatment and see if the HIV stays suppressed.

If all of these steps are successful then the siRNAs have eliminated the viral reservoir and silenced HIV. The siRNA treatment has been shown to be effective for up to 30 days in laboratory settings, so if the same is shown in human trials then this could be a significant improvement for the quality of life for millions of HIV+ patients in the future.

http://knowledgearian.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/a-new-direction-in-hiv-therapy/

[dico]

Thank you. Always good articles from you

[tryingtostay]

[xinyuan]

This has potential. I'm glad to hear it's moving forward.

[Mishma]

Our co-ed baseball team at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute I worked at years ago was called the RNases. And these were proteins. RNA's are pretty labile but this work is encouraging.