Stem cell therapy may combat AIDS

California, January 19: Based on the results of a trial conducted by the scientists at City of Hope Medical Centre in Duarte, California, reserachers have concluded that stem cell therapy may be used to combat AIDS.

Any damage to the immune systemdefine of the body can cause AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Such a condition can make the afflicted person highly vulnerable to infections and tumors. AIDS is caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIVdefine).

As per statistics, in 2007, AIDS killed nearly 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children. Now, AIDS is considered as an epidemic.

Though several treatments for AIDS and HIV are available but these only slow down the pace of the disease. AIDS still remains an incurable disease. There is antiretroviral treatment which reduces the mortality and the morbidity of HIV. But the problem here is that these drugs are quiet expensive and are not available in all countries.

Since the last 25 years, scientists around the world have been trying to find out an effective cure to prevent deaths caused by AIDS. But now the researchers firmly believe that they will soon find an effective way to treat AIDS. A new type of stem cell therapy may prevent AIDS patients from dying of opportunistic infections.

In the trial, the scientists took anti-HIV stem cells from the body of the patient- undergoing the replacement surgery of bone marrow to cure the cancerdefine of lymph- and transplanted these anti-HIV stem cells back in his body.

In this procedure, the genesdefine which keep a check on the spread of HIV in the body were taken and integrated into human stem cells. This procedure was carried out in laboratory and at the end, the stem cells containing the savior genes were re-introduced into the patient's bone marrow.

According to the reports of Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, this re-introduction process initiated the growth of new white blood cells which had ability to fight AIDS infection effectively.

In the trial, the stem cell transplantation was seen effective in improving the overall condition of the patient, researchers said.

However, lead researcher Dr David DiGiusto, director of haematopoietic cell therapies at City of Hope Medical Centre in Duarte said that this treatment is still in its infant or experimental stage and it could take at least ten more years to become accessible to the ordinary masses.