The gene therapy diminished the levels of virus and eradicated in patients having naturally occurring mutation of gene, found a preliminary trail of HIV treatment. The first phase of very small trail tested the SB-728-T gene treatment that is intended to interrupt theCCR5 gene used by HIV to contaminate immune system cells.

The first clinical trial using zinc-finger nucleases to provide long-term resistance to HIV-1 infection has been given the go-ahead by the US Food and Drug Administration. Sangamo BioSciences of Richmond, California, and its clinical partner, the University of Pennsylvania, have begun enrolling the first 12 people in a phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate SB-728-T, a novel zinc-finger DNA-binding nuclease that permanently disrupts the CCR5 gene on CD4⁺ T cells (Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 808–816, 2008

Data Demonstrate that SB-728-T Possesses Necessary Immunologic Properties to Support a ‘Functional Cure’ for HIV/AIDS

RICHMOND, Calif., March 6, 2013

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced new data from its program to develop a ‘functional cure’ for  HIV/AIDS  in two presentations at the 20^th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), held in Atlanta from March 3 to 6, 2013.

The first presentation described data from the SB-728-T Phase 1 study (SB-728-902, Cohorts 1-3) demonstrating that SB-728-T treatment of HIV-infected subjects leads to durable reconstitution of the immune system driven by increases in total CD4+ central memory T-cells (T_CM) and CCR5-protected T_CM. T_CM are long-lived, self-renewing cells that have the ability to remember and react against foreign antigens including HIV.  The data also showed that certain cell surface marker and gene expression profiles may predict which patients will likely respond best to SB-728-T treatment.

About Sangamo

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. is focused on research and development of novel DNA-binding proteins for therapeutic gene regulation and genome editing. The Company has ongoing Phase 2 clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a novel ZFP Therapeutic^® for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Sangamo’s other therapeutic programs are focused on monogenic diseases, including hemophilia, Huntington’s disease and  hemoglobinopathies such as beta-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. Sangamo’s core competencies enable the engineering of a class of DNA-binding proteins known as zinc finger DNA-binding proteins (ZFPs).  Engineering of ZFPs that recognize a specific DNA sequence enables the creation of sequence-specific ZFP Nucleases (ZFNs) for gene modification and ZFP transcription factors (ZFP TFs) that can control gene expression and, consequently, cell function. Sangamo has entered into a strategic collaboration with Shire AG to develop therapeutics for hemophilia, Huntington’s disease and other monogenic diseases and has established strategic partnerships with companies in non-therapeutic applications of its technology including Dow AgroSciences and Sigma-Aldrich Corporation. For more information about Sangamo, visit the company’s website atwww.sangamo.com.