Enhanced natural killer cells show promise for HIV remission

More than 30 million people with HIV must take antiretroviral therapy (ART) medications daily to keep the virus under control, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

The drugs are effective but don't eliminate the virus; HIV remains hidden in "reservoirs" throughout the body, ready to reactivate if treatment stops.

But researchers at Case Western Reserve University, in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, have made a significant breakthrough in HIV treatment. They've shown that NK (Natural Killer) cells-specialized immune cells that naturally target virus-infected and tumor cells-can be enhanced to better fight HIV infections.

Their findings were recently published in mBio, the scientific journal for the American Society of Microbiology.

"NK cell immunotherapy is already being used for cancer therapy, and the data from those studies provides a great foundation for translation of this approach to an HIV cure strategy," said Mary Ann Checkley-Luttge, a senior research associate at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, who led the study. "We are hoping that NK cell immunotherapy can help reduce the reservoir enough to allow long-term immunological control of HIV without ART."

Checkley-Luttge works in the lab of Jonathan Karn, a professor at the School of Medicine and pioneer in HIV research as director of the Case Center for AIDS Research.

The research team discovered that NK cells taken from HIV-positive patients can be expanded and enhanced in the lab to more effectively target and reduce these viral reservoirs.

This discovery marks a significant step toward long-term HIV remission by enhancing the body's immune system. The approach could enable people with HIV to control the virus without lifelong dependence on daily antiretroviral medications.

The groundwork for such a discovery was supported by Case Western Reserve's long-standing interdisciplinary collaboration and robust HIV research infrastructure. The School of Medicine houses a National Institutes of Health-designated Center for AIDS Research founded more than 30 years ago, and the Center for Excellence on the Impact of Substance Use on HIV, providing access to cutting-edge technologies essential for high-impact HIV research.

Our team's next goals are to test whether lab-enhanced NK cells can work as 'off-the-shelf' therapy, We plan to conduct studies using advanced animal models that closely mimic HIV infection in humans and then work toward clinical trials in the next two years to test this approach in people living with HIV."

Jonathan Karn, Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Case Western Reserve

The research was made possible through blood donations from people living with HIV and represents a collaborative effort between patients, researchers and institutions working toward better HIV treatments.