Chimeric antigen receptor engineered stem cells: a novel HIV therapy
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Updated: Oct 9, 2026
Stem-cell Based Engineered Immunity Against HIV Infection in the Humanized Mouse Model
Published on: July 2, 2016
Anjie Zhen1, Mayra A Carrillo1, Scott G Kitchen1
1Division of Hematology & Oncology, Department of Medicine; UCLA AIDS Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Abstract:
Despite the success of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) for suppressing HIV and improving patients' quality of life, HIV persists in cART-treated patients and remains an incurable disease. Financial burdens and health consequences of lifelong cART treatment call for novel HIV therapies that result in a permanent cure. Cellular immunity is central in controlling HIV replication. However, HIV adopts numerous strategies to evade immune surveillance. Engineered immunity via genetic manipulation could offer a functional cure by generating cells that have enhanced antiviral activity and are resistant to HIV infection. Recently, encouraging reports from several human clinical trials using an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified T-cell therapy for treating B-cell malignancies have provided valuable insights and generated remarkable enthusiasm in engineered T-cell therapy. In this review, we discuss the development of HIV-specific chimeric antigen receptors and the use of stem cell based therapies to generate lifelong anti-HIV immunity.
