Hiv Specific T Cells Generated from HIV Naive Adult and Cord Blood Donors Target a Range of Novel Viral Epitopes: Implications for a Cure Strategy after Allogeneic HSCT and CBT

Adoptive T cell therapy has been successful in boosting viral-specific immunity post-HSCT, preventing viral rebound of CMV and EBV. However, the therapeutic use of T cells to boost HIV-specific T cell immunity in HIV+ patients has been met with limited success. Despite multiple attempts to eradicate HIV with allogeneic HSCT, there is only one case of functional HIV cure post-HSCT, the Berlin Patient. Hence, we hypothesized that broadly HIV-specific CD8 and CD4 T-cells (HXTCs) could be expanded from patients on ARVs, as well as HIV negative adult (dHXTCs) and cord blood donors (cbHXTCs), employing a non-HLA restricted approach for the treatment of HIV+ individuals after autologous or allogeneic HSCT.