8 October 2009 - Adaptimmune has announced the approval of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Researchers at Adaptimmune and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine also announced the opening for enrolment of a study using patients' cells carrying an engineered T-cell receptor to treat HIV.
The trial may have important implications in the development of new treatments for HIV potentially slowing - or even preventing - the onset of AIDS.
The trial makes use of the body's natural ability to recognise infected cells by enhancing the power of the T-cell receptor (TCR) on killer T-cells.
When a virus infects cells, it hijacks the host cell machinery in order to replicate and spread infection.
These infected cells then expose or 'present' small parts of the virus proteins on their surface, offering a 'molecular fingerprint' called an 'epitope' for killer T-cells from the immune system to identify.
This triggers an immune response, eliminating the virus and any cells involved in its production.
However, HIV not only replicates itself quickly on infection but also has the ability to mutate rapidly, swiftly disguising its fingerprints to allow it to hide from killer T-cells.
Researchers at the Oxford University spin-out Adaptimmune have spent a decade working on ways to improve the natural ability of the TCR to recognise infected and cancerous cells; a process which has involved remaking the natural TCR protein and then modifying its ability to bind to the molecular fingerprints of the affected cells.
Last year, with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, they engineered and tested a killer T-cell receptor that can recognise all the different disguises HIV is known to have used to evade detection.
The researchers transferred this receptor to the killer T-cells to create genetically engineered 'bionic assassins' able to destroy HIV-infected cells in culture.
They are now taking their technology into the clinic.
