In article <2qn1j7$67j at eagle.natinst.com>,
Mike Klopfer <klopfer at natinst.com> wrote:
>>I read somewhere about transplanting a functioning human immune system
>into SCID mice. I was wondering if there are other examples of transplanting
>immune systems between species. I was wondering if this could be a potential
>treatment for hiv e.g. using the immune sytem of a species that isn't
>susceptible to the virus to replace the immune system of the hiv infected
>person.
>Along this line I've heard of a treatment (maybe it was called Total
>Lymphoid Irradiation) using radiation to destroy a persons immune
>system. Then the immune system can be restarted from saved stem cells
>possibly eliminating rejection of transplanted organs. I was wondering
>if something like this is being tried or used? If this is not successfull I
>would also be interested in finding out what is the best guess as to why not.
As other have mentioned you are talking about bone marrow transplants.
I think that transplanting an immune system between species is pretty
difficult. That is why they use SCID mice, they don't have a previous
immune system to either destroy and replace or that can reject the new
immune system/bone marrow.
The reason why this is not used to treat HIV is that it is thought HIV
would survive the transplant in particular killing all the bone marrow
via chemotherapy and/or radiation would still leave some HIV in the
body. However the following paragraph comes from: Armitage, James O.,
"Bone Marrow Transplantation", New England Journal of Medicine, Vol.
330, No. 12, March 24, 1994. [A syngeneic bone marrow transplant
means the donor was an identical twin.]
There is one report of a patient with the acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome (AIDS) who contracted lymphoma and underwent syngeneic
bone marrow transplantation while being treated with zidovudine.
[92] Although the patient died from recurrent lymphoma, at autopsy
there was no evidence of persistent infection from the human
immunodeficiency virus. The absence of subsequent reports on bone
marrow transplantation to treat AIDS suggest that this approach has
not been able to eliminate the virus permanently.
92. Holland HK, Saral R, Rossi JJ, et al. Allogenic bone marrow
transplantation, zidovudine, and human immunodeficiency virus type
1 (HIV-1) infection: studies in a patient with non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma. Ann Intern Med 1989;11:973-81.
Art
flatau at cli.com
