Search Results for 'CCR5'

Order of authorship in the original publication: Deng, Liu, Ellmeier.... This paper was immediately followed in the same issue of Nature by:

Tatjana Dragic, Virginia Litwin, Graham P. Allaway et al. "HIV-1 entry into CD4+ cells is mediated by the chemokine receptor CC-CKR-5," Nature, 381, 667-673.

What was called CC-CKR-5 in the Dragic, Litwin, Allaway paper was later named CCR5. These two papers laid the theory and the foundation behind the purposeful and targeted search for bone marrow donors with this mutation that finally achieved success 13 years later in Gero Hütter et al GM 10775 ("Long-term control of HIV by CCR5 Delta32/Delta32 stem-cell transplantation", 2009). 

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

The authors showed that the absence of the CCR5 receptor, which provides immunoresistance to HIV increases susceptability to West Nile virus. (Order of authorship in the original publication: Glass, McDermott, Lim et al.)

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Gero Hütter and co-authors reported the first long-term remission or "cure" of HIV/AIDS in a human. The patient, Timothy Ray Brown also known as "The Berlin Patient" also suffered from myeloid leukemia and underwent stem-cell transplanation (bone marrow transplant) as treatment for his leukemia. The stem-cell donor lacked the CCR5 HIV virus receptor on his cells. When these cells were transplanted into the "The Berlin Patient" the donor's cells totally replaced the patient's bone marrow cells with cells that lacked the CCR5 HIV virus receptor and made the recipient "immune" to HIV. Thus "The Berlin Patient" was "cured" of both AIDS and leukemia. Digital edition of this paper from nejm.org at this link.

The first replication of cure of HIV/AIDS by this method was accomplished 10 years later in March 2019 by a team lead by Ravindra Gupta: "HIV-1 remission following CCR5Δ32/Δ32 haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation," Nature, 568, 244–248 (2019).

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this addition to the bibliography.)

"Myles Jackson uses the story of the CCR5 gene to investigate the interrelationships among science, technology, and society. Mapping the varied “genealogy” of CCR5—intellectual property, natural selection, Big and Small Pharma, human diversity studies, personalized medicine, ancestry studies, and race and genomics—Jackson links a myriad of diverse topics. The history of CCR5 from the 1990s to the present offers a vivid illustration of how intellectual property law has changed the conduct and content of scientific knowledge, and the social, political, and ethical implications of such a transformation.

"The CCR5 gene began as a small sequence of DNA, became a patented product of a corporation, and then, when it was found to be an AIDS virus co-receptor with a key role in the immune system, it became part of the biomedical research world—and a potential moneymaker for the pharmaceutical industry. When it was further discovered that a mutation of the gene found in certain populations conferred near-immunity to the AIDS virus, questions about race and genetics arose. Jackson describes these developments in the context of larger issues, including the rise of “biocapitalism,” the patentability of products of nature, the difference between U.S. and European patenting approaches, and the relevance of race and ethnicity to medical research" (publisher).