Engineered Stem Cells Seek Out, Kill HIV In Living Organisms

Engineered Stem Cells
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Engineered Stem Cells
The HIV menace had been around for the last three decades. Over the years, HIV and AIDS have destroyed many homes due to stigmatization and death that has knocked on their doors too many a times. Ever since it’s spread in the 1980s, there has been trials and scientific research to try and find its cure with some success. The origin of gene therapy was in the 1970s where only monogenic inherited diseases were the primary target. For over three decades since the revelation of HIV-1, AIDS remains an outstanding general medical issue influencing more than 35.3 million individuals around the world (Murray et. al. 2014). Current antiviral treatment has neglected to annihilate HIV-1, halfway because of the diligence of viral supplies. This is because HIV interferes with the natural ability of the body to fight off diseases which make it very complicated to develop a vaccine against it. Just like any other, other virus, HIV gets into individual cells of the body and takes hostage their machinery and replicate itself. However, in copying the cells, the virus does not replicate the specific cells, but makes it sloppy, which makes it mutate very fast into different strains. It is therefore particularly difficult to control as it hijacks the white blood cells, which make up a crucial part of the immune system, and eventually kills them. In so doing, it wins over the immune system, throwing it into disarray. This, therefore, opens a leeway for other opportunistic diseases.
With the advancement of technology, there is renewed hope that a cure can be found. Engineered stem cells are the new approach to modern day science. Genetically engineered stem cells is a gene therapy that entails the transfer of genetics into a patient's tissues and organs (Wirth and Ylä-Herttuala, 2013). In gene therapy, diseased genes can be transplanted and replaced with standard malfunctioning genes, and the standard functioning of the tissue resumed. It does not only deal with replacing diseased cells but also the addition of new functions to the cells. Some of the cell function that can be improved include the production of the system mediator immune protein that assists in combating diseases such as cancer. This paper, therefore, aims to tackle gene therapy otherwise known as genetically engineered cells in the fight against the HIV in a move to find a permanent cure.
Gene therapy
Gene therapy can be a two-way traffic where cells can be transferred directly to the patient or by using the living cells as vehicles for transporting the normal genes. Direct gene transfer is relatively easier as it entails transferring the genes directly to the patient's tissues and immune system (Zwaka, 2006). This happens when the cells are packaged as ribosomes (these are cells that are spherical in shape and are made up of molecules that form the membrane of the cell) and fed into the immune system. Any other biological practice can be used for this transfer. Alternate methods are packaging the cells into genetically engineered viruses that are altered and redesigned biologically and are therefore not harmful to the body. This has been active for almost ten years, but the mere virtue of bei...