Development of immunotherapy for HIV cure

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25293226
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Infectious disease medicine
• Research Institution: National Institute of Infectious Diseases (2014-2015); The University of Tokyo (2013)
• Principal Investigator: Tachikawa Ai 国立感染症研究所, エイズ研究センター, 室長 (10396880)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KANEKO Shin 京都大学, iPS細胞研究所, 教授 (40361331) ; KOIBUCHI Tomohiko 東京大学, 医科学研究所, 講師 (50313094)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: HIV感染症 / CTL / iPS細胞 / 免疫細胞療法 / 免疫老化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Toward achievement of the HIV eradication strategy, we developed a new T cell therapy using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology. T cells are irreversibly senescent, less survival, dysfunctional, and lose potential for HIV suppression in chronic HIV-1 infection. We successfully generated iPS cells from HIV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in HIV-infected patients (T-iPSC), and redifferentiated the T-iPSC into T cells with the same antigen specificity. The T-iPSC-derived T cells had high proliferation capacity and produced multiple cytokines. HIV-infected cells were recognized and killed by the T-iPSC-derived HIV-specific T cells efficiently, suggesting rejuvenated T-iPSC-derived T cells could be a good effector in vivo. Our data show the possibility that immunotherapy using T-iPSC-derived HIV-specific T cells could be a new strategy for eradicating HIV-infected cells to achieve HIV cure.

Free Research Field

感染免疫学