Stem cell-based therapies for HIV/AIDS.

One of the current focuses in HIV/AIDS research is to develop a novel therapeutic strategy that can provide a life-long remission of HIV/AIDS without daily drug treatment and, ultimately, a cure for HIV/AIDS. Hematopoietic stem cell-based anti-HIV gene therapy aims to reconstitute the patient immune system by transplantation of genetically engineered hematopoietic stem cells with anti-HIV genes. Hematopoietic stem cells can self-renew, proliferate and differentiate into mature immune cells. In theory, anti-HIV gene-modified hematopoietic stem cells can continuously provide HIV-resistant immune cells throughout the life of a patient. Therefore, hematopoietic stem cell-based anti-HIV gene therapy has a great potential to provide a life-long remission of HIV/AIDS by a single treatment. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the recent progress of developing anti-HIV genes, genetic modification of hematopoietic stem progenitor cells, engraftment and reconstitution of anti-HIV gene-modified immune cells, HIV inhibition in in vitro and in vivo animal models, and in human clinical trials.

Stable Delivery of CCR5-Directed shRNA into Human Primary Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells via a Lentiviral Vector.

RNAi is a powerful tool to achieve suppression of a specific gene expression and therefore it has tremendous potential for gene therapy applications. A number of vector systems have been developed to express short-hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) to produce siRNAs within mammalian T-cells, primary hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC), human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and in animal model systems. Among these, vectors based on lentivirus backbones have significantly transformed our ability to transfer shRNAs into nondividing cells, such as HSPC, resulting in high transduction efficiencies. However, delivery and long-term expression of shRNAs should be carefully optimized for efficient knock down of target gene without causing cytotoxicity in mammalian cells. Here, we describe our protocols for the development of shRNA against a major HIV co-receptor/chemokine receptor CCR5 and the use of lentiviral vectors for stable shRNA delivery and expression in primary human PBMC and HSPC.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Inhibits RAB7 Recruitment to Selectively Modulate Autophagy Flux in Macrophages.

Here we report a novel regulatory mechanism for autophagy-mediated degradation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and specific strategy exploited by the virulent Mtb to evade it. We show while both avirulent (H37Ra) and virulent (H37Rv) mycobacteria could readily localize to autophagosomes, their maturation into autolysosomes (flux) was significantly inhibited by the latter strain. The inhibition of autophagy flux by the virulent strain was highly selective, as it did not perturb the basal autophagy flux in the macrophages. Selective inhibition of flux of Mtb-containing autophagosomes required virulence regulators PhoP and ESAT-6. We show that the maturation of Mtb-containing autophagosomes into autolysosomes required recruitment of the late endosome marker RAB7, forming the intermediate compartment amphisomes. Virulent Mtb selectively evaded their targeting to the amphisomes. Thus we report a crosstalk between autophagy and phagosome maturation pathway and highlight the adaptability of Mtb, manifested by selective regulation of autophagy flux.