Gene therapy for HIV infection

HIV-1 is the causative agent of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and is a major international health concern. The limited effectiveness of current antiviral therapies has led to the search for alternative treatments. One emerging field of medical treatment is termed human gene therapy. In principle, human gene therapy calls for the engineering of the cells from a medical patient with an agent that can potentially result in a therapeutic benefit to the patient. It has been suggested that gene therapy technology may be applied as an anti-HIV-1 agent. The term 'intracellular immunization' was suggested for strategies that work within a potential HIV-1 target cell to inhibit the productive infection of that cell by HIV-1. Various strategies based on this intracellular approach have been proposed and include the use of antisense, and transdominant HIV proteins. Both of these approaches can inhibit HIV-1 in vitro and a clinical trial has been proposed to test their effectiveness in vivo.