By Deena Beasley

Thu Mar 6, 2014 4:21pm EST

A nurse carries a child in the San Jose Hospice, in Sacatepequez, 45 km (28 miles) of Guatemala City, November 30, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jorge Dan Lopez

(Reuters) - Treating HIV patients first with a chemotherapy drug improved their response to an experimental gene-modifying technique for controlling the virus, according to Sangamo BioSciences.

The company presented new data from a small early-stage trial of its treatment, SB-728-T, on Thursday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston.

Shares of Sangamo were up 17 percent at $22.92 in late trading on Nasdaq. Shares of the Richmond, California company have gained about 67 percent so far this year.

On Wednesday, the New England Journal of Medicine published data from an earlier trial showed that Sangamo's strategy of genetically modifying cells from people infected with HIV could become a way to control the virus that causes AIDS without using antiviral drugs.

"Sangamo's HIV 'suppression' is promising, but very early and far from a 'cure,'" RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee said in a research note. "This is very early study for technology and safety validation."

The technique is designed to disrupt a gene, CCR5, used by the human immunodeficiency virus to infect T-cells, the white blood cells that fight viral infections. A patient's cells are removed and processed to alter the DNA that codes for the CCR5 receptor. The altered cells are multiplied and tested, then infused back into the patient.

See the rest here:
Chemo drug helps HIV patients respond to Sangamo gene therapy

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