Study: Gene therapy may block HIV transmission during breastfeeding

Delivering broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 to newborns via gene therapy provided them with multi-year protection from HIV/AIDS infection, according to an animal study led by scientists at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.

With further research, the strategy could offer a relatively simple way to prevent transmission of HIV-1 during breastfeeding in parts of the world with limited medical resources, said lead author Mauricio Martins, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of immunology and microbiology at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute.

The advent of antiretroviral drugs has dramatically lowered the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission in developed countries. However, globally, hundreds of thousands of children continue to contract HIV-1 each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. One reason is due to mothers’ difficulties obtaining the needed antiretroviral medications, especially during the breastfeeding period, Martins said.

“In sub-Saharan Africa, you have mothers living with HIV tasked with taking their own medicines, and also administering drugs to their babies, sometimes multiple times a day,” Martins said. “This is an intervention that you would give one time at birth, and they would not need it again for years.”