Does AGT103-T remove HIV from CD4 cells’ DNA so transplanted cells don’t virally replicate when ART ends, leading to the cells’ death?
The AGT103-T vector greatly lowers the cell surface levels of CCR5 but does not impact CXCR4 for safety reasons. The HIV DNA remains in the cell, but expression of HIV proteins is severely reduced by destabilizing the virus RNA. This is a special feature of AGT103-T: the modification protects against virus entering a cell, and prevents an already infected cell from releasing virus ever again.