Special Issue "Gene Therapy for Retroviral Infections"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Irvin Chen
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, 615 Charles E. Young Dr. South, BSRB, Rm 161, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Website: http://people.healthsciences.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=46745
E-Mail: syuchen@mednet.ucla.edu
Phone: +310 825 4793

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Dong Sung An
UCLA School of Nursing, 615 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California, 90095, USA
Website: http://nursing.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=113&ref=168
E-Mail: an@ucla.edu
Phone: +1 310 206 2063
Fax: +1 310 983 1067

Dear Colleagues,

The main focus of this special issue is to review and present recent gene therapy research relevant to retroviral infections. Current highly active antiviral retroviral therapy (HAART) effectively suppresses HIV viral load to undetectable levels. However, HAART does not cure HIV infection. HIV persists in various cellular reservoirs under HAART and if therapy is ceased, viral loads rapidly rebound. Therefore, stable control of HIV infection without continuous treatment remains a long-term goal of HIV therapy. Because of the recent HIV cure achieved in one patient with D32/D32 homozygous CCR5 deficient bone marrow transplants, there has been emerging interest in developing novel HIV cure strategies. Gene therapy to genetically protect stem cells and/or their progenies from HIV infection may provide life-long protection by a single or a few treatments. We expect that this special issue will facilitate awareness of gene therapy research for the development of novel therapeutic strategies for HIV infection.

Prof. Dr. Irvin Chen
Prof. Dr. Dong Sung An
Guest Editors

Submission

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Confirmed contributors:

1. Dr. Gero Hutter; Berlin Charité Hospital, Germany
2. Dr. Robert Doms; Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3400 Civic Center Blvd., Main Bldg, 5th Floor, Room 5135, Philadelphia PA 19104, USA
3. Dr. Hans Peter Kiem; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, PO Box 19024, M/S D1-100, 1100 Fairview Ave N, Seattle WA 98109-1024, USA
4. Dr. Geoff Symonds; Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
5. Dr. David DiGuisto; Department of Medicine National Jewish Hospital and Research Center University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Denver, Colorado USA
6. Dr. Lili Yang; California Institute of Technology, USA
7. Dr. Grant Trobridge; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and School of Molecular Biosciences, P.O. Box 646534, Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164-6534, USA
8. Drs. Nori Kasahara (UCLA), USA
9. Ramesh Akkina (Colorado State Univ.), USA
10. Permlata Shankar (Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center), USA