While the findings presented are preliminary and in one person with HIV, I’m hopeful that with further testing in larger patient populations, SRI’s novel cell therapy approach could one day be an alternative HIV treatment to many.”Įnochian BioSciences, Inc. This, combined with the fact that access to antiviral treatments is limited, creates a significant unmet medical need. Although antiviral treatment is very effective, it is expensive and some patients cannot, or do not want to receive it. Mark Dybul, a prominent global HIV expert and Executive Vice Chair of Enochian BioSciences said, “As an HIV researcher, clinician and former leader of large, global HIV treatment programs, I am excited by these results.
Enochian BioSciences holds the exclusive license for the proprietary technology.ĭr. Gumrukçu and SRI are currently pursuing a regulatory pathway with the FDA to study the approach in more patients. This could potentially allow persons living with HIV to stop antiviral treatment for extended periods of time. This innovative cell therapy could be a potential strategy to achieve a “functional cure” for HIV. HIV levels in the patient’s blood have remained at or below detection for an additional 255 days, all while the patient has not been taking antiviral medication. However, HIV levels began to decline after approximately three weeks, and after 100 days dropped below the detection level of routinely used blood tests (20 copies/ml).
Because the patient stopped antiviral treatment and received some supportive medication before the cellular therapy, the level of HIV initially increased, as expected. The NK and GDT cells were collected from a person who does not have HIV. With approval from an Institutional Review Board, this single patient was treated with a novel cellular therapy of natural killer (NK) and gamma delta T-cells (GDT) – a small subset of immune cells that can be infected with HIV but could also be a key factor in controlling the virus. Presentation can be found at Ī 54-year-old man, diagnosed with HIV in 1986, had persistent HIV detected in his blood, despite antiretroviral therapy. Serhat Gumrukçu, co-founder and inventor of Enochian BioSciences and Director of the Seraph Research Institute (SRI), presented the findings at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT). LOS ANGELES, (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Enochian BioSciences, Inc., a company focused on gene-modified cellular and immune therapies in infectious diseases and cancer, today announced the release of preliminary data relating to the use of a novel cell therapy approach in controlling human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in humans.