HIV Research question

[DjGabriro]

Hi!

I am having an intro course on gen immunology and was preparing an HIV chapter for the exam of gen pathology. I wondered: if HIV targets CD4+ and macrophages, along with few other cell lines, wouldn't the complete chemotherapy-driven depletion of WBCs and a auto-bone marrow transplant be useful? If not, why? one reason I thought of was: nope, because dendritic cells in lymph nodes would keep the virus around for a while, But: after some time has passed in a sterile environment, immune system-free, wouldn't the virus be washed out? I thought a think like this is done for certain leukaemias and other disorders of the immune system, so why not also for HIV?

Thanks for the replies! ^^

[luisillo]

There was one report about a man who cured from HIV infection after a bone marrow trasplant. However, this was because the donor had a mutation (delta 32) in the CCR5 gene. CCR5, as a protein, acts as coreceptor for HIV entry to CD4+ cells, and this mutation confers resistance to infection. What probably happened in this case is that the transplanted bone marrow replenished circulation of CD4+ cell resistant to the infection (HIV) allowing the body to create enough resistant memory cells to keep the virus undetectable in plasma.

In normal bone marrow trasplants this wouldn't work because the virus can survive integrated to the genome of radiation resistant cells such as memory cells in lymph nodes.

[luisillo]

Here's some reference about it:

McDermott DH, Conway SE, Wang T, et al. Donor and recipient chemokine receptor CCR5 genotype is associated with survival after bone marrow transplantation. Blood 2010; 115: 2311-2318