City of Hope for HIV trial

A key collaborator on Benitec’s (ASX: BLT) RNAi-based triple therapy trial for HIV has released encouraging early results at a conference in the US.

Dr John Zaia, chair of the division of virology at the Beckman Research Institute in the US, is collaborating on a trial using Benitec’s RNAi-based technology at the City of Hope in California.

The technology involves a lentiviral vector to deliver short hairpin RNAs (shRNA) into haematopoietic progenitor cells to suppress HIV replication.

It is being trialled in patients undergoing autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for AIDS-related lymphoma.

Zaia told an RNAi for therapeutics conference in Boston that three patients have had safe engraftment at 10 days, and the researchers had observed gene markers in the blood months later.

The trial involves a triple gene therapy: the lentivirus vector encodes three forms of anti-HIV RNA. One is an shRNA that targets an exon in the HIV tat/rev gene, another is a decoy for TAR, and the third is a ribozyme that targets the host cell CCRG chemokine receptor.

Benitec expects further analysis to be available for the American Society of Haematology in December.

The company has also announced a placement of shares to the major shareholder in the company to raise almost $2 million.