Genetic engineering leads to cure for acute leukemia

Researchers have begun work on a new type of cell therapy that shows promise in treating an acute type of leukemia. Scientists have found that by genetically altering a person's immune cells they are able to fight the cancerous cells within the blood.

The first successful treatment was in a 7-year-old girl, Emma Whitehead saving her "from deaths door into remission nearly a year ago." (Grady) Emma has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) the most common type of childhood cancer. Lymphoblastic leukemia is cancer of the blood and bone marrow [primarily affects B-cells]. It is caused when bone marrow makes too many immature white blood cells. These cells do not work like normal white blood cells and are not able to fight infection effectively. (NCI, NIH) ALL gets progressively worse with age and has a 60% fatality rate in adults and a 10% rate in children. (Grady)

Research was done by Dr. Michael Sedelian, the director of the Center for Cell Engineering and Genetics Lab at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan New York.  He states:

["Usually patients like the ones in this study, who relapse after chemotherapy, usually have only a few months left. But with this new treatment three out of five patients have been in remission for five or more months. Two others have died: one was in remission but passed away from a blood clot, and the other relapsed. The survivors have gone on to have bone marrow transplants. Their prognosis is good but relapse is still possible and only time will tell."] (Grady, Sedelain)

Other researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, have become intrigued by this research and plan to conduct similar tests of their own.

How the treatment works: A patient's blood would be extracted and run through a machine separating the T- cells from the blood. A T-cell is a type of white blood cell that helps fight infection and maintain immunity. The researchers would modify the T-cells to attack any cell that carried a certain protein, called CD-19. CD-19 is located in the B-cells that have the cancerous material. The genetically modified T-cells are reprogrammed to attack and destroy any cell containing CD-19. In theory, destroying all B-cells (which can be replaced) along with the cancer sending the patient into remission. (Grady)

Picture from: Google Images

The process itself may be as grueling as chemotherapy. Dr. Brentjens conducted a treatment on an 58- year old individual who was unsuccessful with chemotherapy treatments. This patient experienced a high fever of 105 degrees, a severe drop in blood pressure and a spike in heart rate. This patient was placed under intensive care during this process and after eight days the leukemia was undetectable after numerous tests.

Dr. Carl June, a Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center has sent two of the three patients he has worked with into remission using the same techniques. However these patients did not receive the standard bone marrow transplant. Dr. Carl June said, "Because all three patients have had amazing anti-tumor response, literally pounds of leukemia have been shed off all three patients." (Medical Health Discoveries)

Today bone marrow transplants have been used to treat this acute type of leukemia but Dr. Junes research supports evidence that this alternative treatment may have promising results in curing cancer.

References:

Grady, D. (2013). Cell therapy shows promise for acute type of leukemia. Retrieved March 24, 2013          
         from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/health/altered-t-cell-therapy-shows-promise-for-acute-leukemia.html?_r=1&

Medical Heath Discoveries. (2013) American researchers found cure for leukemia. Retrieved March
         24, 2013. From http://www.medicalhealthdiscoveries.com/2011/08/american-researchers-found-cure-for.html

National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health (2013). General Information about 
     Childhood Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  
     http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/childALL/Patient/page1

Baby cured of HIV

Doctors in Mississippi had a remarkable event occur Sunday when they discovered a baby that had contracted HIV at birth had no sign of the deadly virus.  Dr. Hannah Gay from the University of Mississippi Medical Center said, “We have perhaps inadvertently but in fact cured the child.” This is the first case in history of a baby being cured of HIV.

This case is special in many ways.  The mother had no prior knowledge of having HIV while pregnant so she did not receive the usual prenatal care that reduces the chances of infection in the child.  Due to the child’s high infection risk, doctors treated the infant only 30 hours after birth with three aggressive retroactive drugs to attack the HIV virus. This is a drastic measure that had never been taken before on someone so young.  Usually there is a six-month waiting period before the use of retroactive drugs to see if the child had contracted the virus or just held antibodies from the infected mother at birth.  In this particular case, the doctors kept the child on treatment and tested weekly for the virus. On three occasions the infant tested positive for the virus however, after 29 days of treatment the child had no sign of the virus. For 18 months they continued treatment but unfortunately the mother started missing appointments until nearly a month and a half later.  Expecting the treatment to have failed and the child to have tremendous growth in the infection the scientists were baffled to find no trace of HIV.  At first doctors’ speculations were that they were treating a child that had not been infected; but after numerous testing and help partnering with Johns Hopkins University they concluded that the child did in fact carry the virus. Scientists believe that the aggressive actions taken at only hours old prevented the growth a replication of HIV. After two and a half years the child still has no sign of the virus and no longer requires medicine. Doctors are still hopeful that the virus stays gone and that replication of this treatment can be implemented.

Every year more than 300,000 children are infected with HIV. If this is not a one in a million occurrence and future research shows that this is an effective treatment, thousands of lives can be saved each year.

Dr. Hannah Gay still gives the infant check-ups ever month and said, "I just check for the virus and keep praying that is stays gone." 

References:

Pollack, A. McNeil Jr., D. (2013). In medical first, a baby with HIV is deemed cured.

            Retrieved March 5, 2013 from

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Castellano, A. (2013). Mississippi baby born with HIV “functionally cured.” Doctors     

          say. Retrieved March 5, 2013 from

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mississippi-baby-born-hiv-functionally-cured-doctors/story?id=18645410