Engineered CTL with Inducible Ab Secretion; a Tripartite attack on HIV Reservoirs

 描述（由申请人提供）：虽然现代疗法已经大大改善了艾滋病毒/艾滋病（PLWHA）感染者的前景，但它们无法治愈感染，使这些人终身负担昂贵的抗逆转录病毒药物。同样显而易见的是，这些治疗并不能完全恢复健康，也不能解决与艾滋病毒抗体阳性相关的负面社会问题，包括污名化和与定罪有关的问题。因此，开发一种安全有效的艾滋病毒治疗方法将大大改善艾滋病毒/艾滋病感染者的生活。治愈艾滋病毒感染的一个主要障碍是建立隐藏或“潜伏”病毒库，这些病毒逃避免疫系统，如果一个人停止抗逆转录病毒治疗，就可能重新引起感染。本课题 正在寻求一种新的方法来设计免疫系统的目标，并消除这种潜在的艾滋病毒水库。人体有几种类型的免疫反应，有可能有助于根除艾滋病毒储存库，包括i）杀伤T细胞反应（或CD 8 T细胞反应），涉及一种可以识别和杀死病毒感染细胞的细胞（来自不同类型的细胞，B细胞），其既可以结合并标记血液中的病毒，也可以结合并标记病毒感染的细胞; iii）自然杀伤反应，涉及另一种类型的细胞，专门杀死已被抗体标记的受感染细胞。W将通过赋予HIV特异性杀伤T细胞产生HIV特异性抗体的能力，在这些系统之间产生协同作用。这种抗体的产生将受到严格控制，只有当这些杀伤性T细胞遇到HIV感染的细胞时，或者当它们被一种药物刺激时，这种药物也会将HIV从隐藏中推出来，一种“潜伏期逆转剂或LRA”。这项工作的最终目的是开发一种治疗干预，其中PLWHA用这些工程细胞和LRA治疗。LRA将暴露HIV宿主，并触发对这些未掩蔽的靶细胞的三方免疫攻击，导致病毒清除并有望治愈。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although modern therapies have dramatically improved the outlooks for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) they are unable to cure infection, leaving these individuals burdened by a lifelong commitment to expensive antiretroviral medication. It has also become clear that these treatments do not fully restore health, nor do they address the negative social issues associated with being HIV positive, including stigma and issues related to criminalization. The development of a safe and effective HIV cure would thus greatly improve the lives of PLWHA. A major obstacle to curing HIV infection is the establishment of reservoirs of hidden or `latent' virus which evade the immune system and can re-seed infection if an individual stops antiretroviral therapy. In this project, we are pursuing a novel approach to engineer the immune system target and eliminate this latent HIV reservoir. The body has several types of immune responses with the potential to contribute to the eradication of HIV reservoirs including i) the killer T-cell response (or CD8 T-cell response) involving a type of cell that can recognize and kill virus infected cells ii) the antibod response (from a different type of cell, B cells) which can both bind to and inactivate virus in th blood and can bind to and label virus-infected cells iii) the natural killer response, involving another type of cell that specifically kills infected cells that have been labeled with antibody. W will create synergy between these systems by endowing HIV-specific killer T-cells with the ability to produce HIV-specific antibodies. This production of antibodies will be tightly controlle to only occur when these killer T- cells either encounter an HIV-infected cell, or when they are stimulated by a drug that also pushes HIV out of hiding, a `latency reversing agent or LRA'. The ultimate aim of this work is to develop a therapeutic intervention where PLWHA are treated with both these engineered cells and LRAs. The LRAs will both expose HIV reservoirs and trigger this tripartite immune attack on these unmasked target cells, leading to viral clearance and hopefully to cures.