Could We Reprogram Immune System To Beat HIV Without Bone Marrow Transplant From A Donor With An Anti-HIV Gene Configuration?

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 18 Nov 2008 - 4:00 PST

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According to media reports this week, an American patient living in Germany and suffering with both leukemia and HIV was apparently cured of both conditions following a bone marrow transplant from a unique donor. The donor possessed a very rare genetic variation that makes it difficult for HIV to enter into his healthy cells. In essence, by transplanting bone marrow from this particular donor to the HIV positive patient, the patient developed a new immune system capable of fending off HIV.

Bone marrow transplants might not be the most efficacious, or comfortable, means of rebuilding an immune system that can contend with HIV. However, there are other means of reprogramming the immune system, and without putting the patient's life at greater risk. Vaccines offer one such approach, but one thus far proven ineffective and even detrimental for those at risk of contracting HIV. Vaccines reprogram the immune system by triggering it to generate antibodies to proteins, or antigens, on the surface of viruses.

Because HIV gets inside of healthy cells so fast, there is little time for the antibodies to do their part, diminishing the ultimate value of vaccines for this disease. The recent failure of Merck's vaccine, V520, in which the risk of contracting HIV increased after vaccination, is a testament to the limited utility of vaccines for HIV.

Fortunately, antibodies are not the only means of reprogramming the immune system. It has been known for nearly 60 years now that antibodies in the immune system have a sibling peptide that also binds to antigens and triggers an immune response. This time, instead of sticking to antigens on the surface of viruses and other pathogens floating freely in lymph and blood, as antibodies do, they bind to antigens presented by body cells infected with a virus, mycobacterium, etc. They then trigger the immune system to hunt down infected cells. They are called transfer factors because, when discovered, they seemed capable of literally transferring immunity from one person to another. Indeed, hundreds of studies, more than 1000 actually, have now bourn that out.

Essentially, transfer factors are to the cell-mediated immune pathway (the one that goes after infected body cells, cancers, fungi, and so on) what antibodies are to the antibodymediated pathway (the one that deals with inflammatory responses, allergies, and with infectious agents floating in the body outside of the body's cells). Both bind to bad guys and trigger immune responses aimed at them. While antibodies can provide protection before a virus infiltrates host cells, transfer factors are needed to lead the immune system to host cells once they are infected.

Unlike antibodies, transfer factors are readily absorbed when taken orally. Transfer factors generated in cows and chickens, or other humans, against specific viruses, from HPV to HIV, can be taken orally in capsule form. The virus-specific information carried by the peptides essentially serves as software for the cell-mediated immune pathway. They bind to CD4+ Helper T-cells (the immune system's air traffic controllers) and trigger the immune system to go hunting for the virus or whatever is referenced by the transfer factor.

More research would be helpful, but that already done indicates that one can literally transfer immunity to infectious agents using this technology, and that transfer factors are quite helpful in fighting infections once they have set in. HIV, along with unrelated intracellular pathogens like Lyme, are able to suppress the cell-mediated pathway while simultaneously activating the antibody-mediated pathway. This enables them to hide. Transfer factors for those specific agents trigger the immune system to go searching for them and, in the process, pull the body away from the antibody mediated response and in the right direction.

In my opinion, they are truly amazing molecules that could provide an entirely unique approach to immunization that is completely separate from vaccines. Indeed, the combination of the two could be best in many cases, as they would instruct both immune pathways, simultaneously, to be on the lookout for HIV, flu, what have you. Different than the genetic mutation/bone marrow transplant approach discussed in this week's article, but one that could help reprogram a patient's immune system without nearly killing them first!

References

Not the cure for AIDS. Miriam Falco, CNN Medical Managing Editor . November 14, 2008 (http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/14/not-the-cure-for-aids/)

White AM. Why vaccines are not the answer - The failure of V520 and the importance of cell-mediated immunity in the fight against HIV. Medical Hypotheses 2008;71(6): 909 - 913.

White AM. A Guide to Transfer Factors and Immune System Health. North Charleston, South Carolina: BookSurge Publishing, 2008.

Written by
Aaron White, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Duke University Medical Center
Box 3374
Durham, NC 27710