Engineered Cells Suppress HIV

In an article from Medical News Today, United States scientists in Los Angeles have found engineered human stem cells in mice acting against the HIV virus. This team had previously discovered that it was possible to create cells that find and kill the virus, but this was the first time that it was done in a living organism. Researchers now believe that human stem cells can help to push viruses down to very low levels among the population and will overall "engineer the human immune response to combat viral infections" (Medical News Today). Although this experiment has come a long way to reach such a great discovery, this will begin a very long journey to be able to use this in every day life with humans. Scott G. Kitchen who was the lead investigator of this study, plans to contain HIV and white blood cells (T cells) that target pathogens in the body until he finds a way to have the T cells successful destroy the HIV virus. Within the mice, it was found that "helper" T cells increased in the blood while HIV decreased.



If this study is proven to be successful and down the road becomes a treatment for anyone, millions of lives would be saved. Not only will this help the HIV virus to a minimum in the human population, but it will also help to open the door to solving many other diseases with unknown treatments, such as cancer.