HIV Gene Therapy Strategies and Safety: What do we know from the Recent Publications?

Abstract

Almost 40 years ago, the world was noticing the emergence of one of the major public health threats it has ever known: HIV. Facing the cost-effectiveness and the health-related issues encountered with antiretroviral treatments, scientists have imagined and conceived gene therapies to tackle HIV infection. The success of such an approach was proved with the "Berlin" patient then recently reiterated in the "London" patient. In fact, the recent progress made in HIV gene therapy could provide a rapid emergence of powerful strategies to treat and totally cure the infection. Based on their principles, these approaches can be separated in three strategies that are (1) engineering HIV target cells to render them resistant to HIV replication, (2) generating genemodified cells able to secrete antiviral proteins that interfere with HIV entry, and (3) modifying cytotoxic T cells to selectively target and eliminate infected cells. Herein, we proposed to review these approaches, their safety and their benefits as reported in recent publications.