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Medical and health sciences
- Virology
Anti-HIV Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells have so far shown little success in human clinical trials. Initial studies demonstrated excellent toxicity profile with little-to-none adverse events, however efficacy was limited. Similar to observations from pioneering CAR-T trials in oncology field, lack of strong co-stimulation was possibly to blame. Recently, a broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) based CAR-T cells were shown to reduce proviral DNA load, however pre-existing resistance to the used VRC01 bNAb resulted in viral escape and fast rebound following analytical therapy interruption. HIV Cure Research Center has been developing improved, so called “Hybrid CAR T cells” which not only target the infected cells by CD4-ectodomain-madiated CAR killing, but also secrete broadly neutralizing antibodies to prevent replication of virions produced by the targeted cells and to mediate secondary immune functions via the Fc-receptor engagement. Our preliminary data indicates, that primary human T cells can be indeed modified to secrete functional, HIV-blocking antibodies while retaining the CAR-mediated killing. Within the context of proposed study we aim to investigate in vivo effects of the Hybrid CAR-T cells as well as to investigate the potential willingness – or lack of thereof – to undergo such treatment among people living with HIV.