London
(dpa) - Scientists are planning to use HIV, one of mankind's most
feared viruses, as a carrier for genes which can combat cancer and
a range of incurable diseases.
The experts
say HIV has an almost perfect ability to dodge the body's immune
defences, making it ideal for carrying replacement genes into
patients' bodies, according to the Observer newspaper Sunday.
A team at
the California-based Salk Institute, one of the world's leading
biology research centres, has created a special detuned strain
of HIV and has started negotiations with the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to begin clinical gene therapy trials this
year.
The first
trials are expected to involve patients suffering from inoperable
cancers although project leader professor Inder Verma said the
HIV technique would have ``far wider applications.''
The plan remains
highly controversial since it involves harnessing a virus which
has caused more than 22 million deaths around the world in the
past two decades.
Verma said
the idea of using HIV for a benign purpose was ``startling'' but
that the doctored HIV version had been neutered by having all
six of the potentially deadly genes removed.
Illnesses
such as haemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and various cancers are
caused when a gene in a patient's body fails to work properly.
In the past few years, breakthroughs in genetics have led gene
therapy scientists to try and replace malfunctioning genes.
Unfortunately,
the body's immune defences have been known to attack and neutralize
the modified genes before they can start their task and progress
in the field has been held up by the lack of a suitable carrier.
The HIV virus
has the ability to sidestep, and then destroy, the immune defence
cells designed to protect our bodies and that makes it attractive
to scientists as a way of ``smuggling in'' replacement genes.
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