Two Patients Achieve Undetectable HIV Levels After Experimental Engineered Immune Cell Treatment

Scientists will report on Tuesday that after a single infusion of immune cells engineered to recognize HIV, two people suppressed their HIV to undetectable levels. The data is scheduled to be presented at a gene therapy conference in Boston.

The researchers shared an early copy of the data with The New York Times. The New York Times reported that for about a decade, scientists have had success curing some blood cancers by modifying a patient’s own immune cells. The same immune cell modification approach may help control HIV.

The study offers what scientists call proof of concept. Dr. Steve Deeks led the trial. He is an HIV expert at the University of California, San Francisco. “It is inspiration and a potential road map to get to where we need to go,” said Dr.

Steve Deeks. Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, an oncologist and gene therapy expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, was not involved in the study. “It’s truly amazing that they were able to accomplish this,” he said.

The treatment remains years, if not decades, from being widely available. The findings nonetheless mark a milestone in efforts to adapt cancer immunotherapy techniques to chronic viral infection. Dr.

Deeks described the result as both inspirational and directional for future work.