The weaponized stem cell

In an era of "customized" this and "personalized" that, the idea of tweaking your immune system to target specific diseases isn't far-fetched. In fact, cancer biologists have had some dramatic successes that even achieved web comic fame (see below).

Recently, stem cell biologists have achieved a similar breakthrough by genetically engineering blood stem cells that would reveal HIV-specific receptors when they become mature cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs)¹, which is a specialized immune cell type that destroys virally infected cells. These receptors would guide the CTLs to seek and to destroy HIV-infected cells. I've never thought of weaponizing stem cells before, but I'm glad someone did. You may be wondering why the researchers didn't tinker with mature CTLs directly, but instead chose a system with intermediary differentiation steps that limits efficiency. I think this is mainly an issue of practicality. It makes more sense to set up a perpetual targeting system for chronic infections like HIV, rather than subjecting patients to repeated transplantation procedures just to manage the disease. The results are still preliminary and there's no telling if this treatment would cure HIV infection, but it's a start.

I wonder if we can use a similar strategy to finally rid ourselves of the common cold...

Image credit: © Creative Commons (http://xkcd.com/938/)

References:

1. Kitchen SG et al. In Vivo Suppression of HIV by Antigen Specific T Cells Derived from Engineered Hematopoietic Stem Cells. PLoS Pathog 8(4): e1002649 (2012). doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002649