Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Gene editing strategy eliminates HIV-1 virus in live mammals

Scientists have made strides toward finding a cure for the HIV-1 virus by showing that it is possible to provide prophylactic treatment via CRISPR/Cas9.  Scientists used rats and mice that had HIV-1 DNA incorporated into their genome.  They utilized CRISPR to eliminate the viral DNA from their genome. This reduced the amount of RNA expression up to 95%.  The scientists in this study also studied mice that were infected with EcoHIV, which is the mouse equivalent of the human HIV-1 virus.  CRISPR was able to block viral replication and prevent further infection with an extremely high efficiency rate of 96%.

The results of this study suggest a cure for HIV is imminent.  Their strategy was efficient and they were able to demonstrate that they could treat acute infection and latent infection.  The next step is to test in primates and eventually begin human testing.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170501112514.htm
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525001617301107

4 comments:

  1. Wow that is an amazing discovery! With this new finding I feel like we are almost there on finding a cure for HIV. Hopefully a cure is made for people soon!

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  2. Great Post! I wonder if there are any other diseases that CRISPR can help cure.

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  3. It's incredible that a cure for HIV is so close to being developed. This discovery could open a lot of doors to finding cures for other diseases and maybe eventually a HIV vaccine for preventative measures.

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  4. Great article, would be amazing if we can cure HIV

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