Baylor Health Care System announced Tuesday it has received $8 million from the French government to develop a therapeutic method of controlling HIV without drugs.
The project represents France's first US research unit, and it is credited in part to Dr. Jacques Banchereau, director of Baylor's Institute of Immunology Research (IIR). Banchereau has devoted his studies to extracting and manipulating dendritic cells, which serve as the body's first line of defense and act as immune system "instructors."
"The common link between cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmunity, and allergy is an alteration of the immune system," Banchereau explained. "So the idea behind developing this institution was to create a place where all the experts in these disciplines could talk to each other."
Baylor is conducting a Phase I trial involving 19 North Texas patients, all of whom have had HIV for many years and have successfully managed it with drug cocktails. One study requirement is participants' HIV must be controlled well enough to be able to go off their medicines during the trial.
"When you interrupt therapy, the virus comes back," said Banchereau. "We hope that it comes back much slower. If we can do that, we hit a home run."
06/22/09
TEXAS: Baylor’s French Connection: Country Gives $8 Million for HIV Therapy Research
Source: Dallas Morning News (06.17.09):: Jason Roberson; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention