Combination genetic therapy to inhibit HIV-1

Compared with single agents, combination antilentiviral pharmacotherapy targets multiple HIV-1 functions simultaneously, maximizing efficacy and decreasing chances of escape mutations. Combination genetic therapy could theoretically enhance efficacy similarly, but delivery of even single genes to high percentages of hematopoietic cells or their derivatives has proven problematic. Because of their high efficiency of gene delivery, we tested recombinant SV40-derived vectors (rSV40s) for this purpose. We made six rSV40s, each carrying a different transgene that targeted a different lentiviral function. We tested the ability of these constructs, individually and in double and triple combinations, to protect SupT1 human T lymphoma cells from HIV-1 challenge. Single chain antibodies (SFv) against CXCR4 and against HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) and integrase (IN) were used, as were polymeric TAR decoys (PolyTAR) and a dominant-negative mutant of HIV-1 Rev (RevM10). Immunostaining showed that virtually all doubly treated cells expressed both transgenes. All transgenes individually protected from HIV-1 but, except for anti-CXCR4 SFv, their effectiveness diminished as challenge doses increased from 40 through 2500 tissue culture infectious dose(50) (TCID(50))/10(6) cells. However, all combinations of transgenes protected target cells better than individual transgenes, even from the highest challenge doses. Thus, combination gene therapies may inhibit HIV-1 better than single agents, and rSV40s may facilitate delivery of multigene therapeutics.