Department of Biotechnology
inStem (Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine)

The Strategies and Challenges of CCR5 Gene Editing in Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells for the Treatment of HIV.

Publication Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

October 1, 2021

Journal

Stem cell reviews and reports

Volume/Issue

17/5

ISSN

2629-3277

HIV infection continues to be a serious health issue with an alarming global spread, owing to the fact that attempts at developing an effective vaccine or a permanent cure remains futile. So far, the only available treatment for the clinical management of HIV is the combined Anti-Retroviral Therapy (cART), but the long-term cART is associated with metabolic changes, organ damages, and development and transmission of drug resistant HIV strains. Thus, there is a need for the development of one-time curative treatment for HIV infection. The allogeneic transplantation with the Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor cells (HSPCs) having 32 bp deletion in Chemokine receptor 5 gene (CCR5 Δ32) demonstrated successful HIV remission in the Berlin and London patients, and highlighted that transplantation of CCR5 null HSPCs is a promising approach for a long- term HIV remission. The advent of gene editing technologies offers a new choice of generating ex vivo CCR5 ablated allogeneic or autologous HSPCs for stem cell transplantation into HIV patients. Many groups are attempting CCR5 disruption in HSPCs using various gene-editing strategies. At least two such studies, involving CCR5 gene editing in HSPCs have entered the clinical trials. This review aims to outline the strategies taken for CCR5 gene editing and discuss the challenges associated with the development of CCR5 manipulated HSPCs for the gene therapy of HIV infection.

Alternate Journal

Stem Cell Rev Rep

PubMed ID

33788143

Authors

Karthik V Karuppusamy
Prathibha Babu
Saravanabhavan Thangavel

Keywords

Humans
Gene Editing
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
HIV Infections
Receptors, CCR5