A putative approach for gene therapy against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

It is proposed here that a form of intracellular immunity can be devised which would protect cells from virus infection and, in particular, could be used as a treatment for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individual. Following in vitro immunization of naive human B lymphocytes with reverse-transcriptase (RT) or HIV transactivator protein (tat), messenger RNA (mRNA) would be isolated from these cells. Using the mRNA molecules as templates, copy DNA (cDNA) molecules encoding the RT or tat-specific immunoglobulins, are prepared and amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. After engineering of the antibody encoding cDNAs to provide appropriate intracellular addressing information, the cDNAs would be used to transfect stem cells of HIV infected individuals in vitro. The presence, in the cytoplasm and nucleus, of antibodies which had been selected to interfere with the reproduction of the virus, would protect these cells from infection. Autologous transplantation of such cells would confer resistance against HIV replication by these stem cells and their progeny in the treated individual. Such a strategy may also be useful against other retroviruses and could provide resistance against retrovirally triggered leukemia.