HIV to Cure Cystic Fibrosis?

Research conducted by geneticist Suzanne Buckley at University College in London, may provide a new treatment for the life-threatening disease cystic fibrosis. The potential cure comes from using the HIV virus to insert healthy genes into the infected patient's lungs.

Buckley is attempting to use a method known as gene therapy to place new, disease-free genes into the cells of people suffering from cystic fibrosis. The new healthy genes then function normally, replacing the genes that caused the disease.

Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease that causes mucus to fill the lungs. The disease is life-threatening and people who suffer from the disease rarely live past their mid-30s.

According to the Mayo Clinic, cystic fibrosis affects the cells that produce mucus, sweat, saliva and digestive juices. Normally, these secretions are thin and slippery, but in cystic fibrosis, a defective gene causes the secretions to become thick and sticky. Instead of acting as a lubricant, the secretions plug up tubes, ducts and passageways, especially in the pancreas and lungs.

People infected with the defective cystic fibrosis gene often live difficult and challenging lives. The degree of severity of the disease varies, but for many, onset begins as a newborn. Patients must undergo a complicated regimen of treatment that includes drugs that help thin the thick mucus that is being secreted into the lungs, bronchodilators such as Proventil to open air passages, and the physical removal of the mucus trapped in their lungs.

Patients with cystic fibrosis are also at increase risk for pneumonia and other bacterial infections. In severe cases lung transplants are often needed to save the lives of infected patients.

The new method of treatment proposed by Buckley could potentially bypass the painful and difficult treatment of the effects of cystic fibrosis by preventing the disease from manifestation.