NatasaTM

The dream of a disease free world

Our approach with Natasa aims to treat Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) by giving immune cells the ability to defend against it.

HIV is a virus that interferes with the body’s ability to fight infections and causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Whilst over the past two decades, antiretrovirals have shown great efficacy against the virus, they still have to be taken on a regular bases for the patients entire lifetime. Furthermore, antiretrovirals start losing their effectiveness gradually over time.

In patients with HIV, the virus transduces its genetic material in CD4+ T-cells by attaching to the CCR5 receptor on these cells. This causes CD4+ T-cells (immune cells) to become impotent and leads to the creation of more HIV virus, in turn causing the hosts immune system to weaken.

Natasa is an advanced, autologous cell therapy that provides a novel solution to treat HIV. In our approach, we use an advanced CRISPR-Cas system (with minimal off targets) to edit the CCR5 gene in patient-derived, CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). This leads to T-cells born from these hematopoietic stem cells to become immune to the HIV virus since the virus cannot attach and enter into these cells. Furthermore, this approach allows the immune system to fight back against the HIV virus, leading to an immune response against it and thus helping eradicate it.