In <4dkevv$2lje at usenetp1.news.prodigy.com> RRRP87C at prodigy.com (Matthew
Dubeck) writes:
>>Here is the basic idea I am working on based on an HIV-cure brainstorm
>which I had one day. I would appreciate any help, comments, or
>criticisims you can provide. Here goes...
>>Take an HIV virus and render it transcription defective.
>(My original idea was by somehow removing the reverse transcriptase or
>mutating it so that it is useless, thus explaining my original post
about
>the removal of reverse transcriptase. Other means could work, and
maybe
>you'll have a better idea after the complete explanation.)
>>Add the gene for promoting programmed cell death (apoptosis) to the
>transcription defective HIV virus.
>>As far as I see, when this new virus is injected into a HIV negative
>individual, they will be no worse for wear because the virus will
simply
>inject its RNA, but because it is transcription defective the RNA will
be
>broken down in the cytoplasm without the gene being expressed.
>>If the new virus is injected into an HIV positive individual, the
virus
>will either infect uninfected T4 helper cells, in which case it will
>behave as it would in an uninfected individual, or it will infect a T4
>helper cell which has already been infected by the bad HIV virus, in
>which case the reverse transcriptase (or whatever mechanism is used)
will
>be present from the bad HIV and the RNA of our retroviral vector will
be
>transcribed. When this happens the gene for programmed cell death
will
>also become active and the infected T4 helper cells will commit
"cellular
>suicide." If all infected cells commit suicide, the bad HIV does not
>have time to infect a host and reproduce, thus dying.
>>Right now I would like to try the theory on murine cells, because HIV
is
>not so much fun to fool around with (and I don't have a
Bio-containment
>level 3 facility). But the basic idea should work on any retrovirus
>which infects a multicellular organism will programmed cell death
>capabilities. I originally wanted to use C. elegans which is a
nematode
>whose programmed cell death has been well documented, but
unfortunately
>there are no known retroviruses which infect it.
>>Thanks for you help, any comments would be appreciated.
>>Matthew Dubeck
>RRRP87C at prodigy.comT
But, if you have a replication defective HIV, how would you be able
to propagate it? Also, I don't see why you would want to immediately
kill off any cells harboring such a reverse transcriptase deficient
mutant if your goal is to use it as a vaccine. It seems that you would
want the infected host cells to survive at least long enough to express
and present viral antigens to the immune system.
Monica Ranes-Goldberg, Ph.D.
Instructor of Immunology
UC Berkeley Extension
>
