Gene Editing Technology Crispr May Cure HIV By Restoring Cell to Near Normal State

A Crispr gene editing test was carried out in July, and the researchers will be able to determine whether it is effective in three months. The effort aims to revert the cell infected with HIV to a near normal state.

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First Participant in Crispr HIV Gene Editing

The first participant in a clinical trial using Crispr gene editing to remove the AIDS-causing virus from his cells was an HIV-positive man. In July, he was connected to an IV bag for an hour, which delivered the experimental therapy right into his blood. The one-time infusion is intended to deliver the virus-clearing gene-editing tools to the man's affected cells. This experiment was shared in Nature.

According to Wired, the volunteer will stop taking the antiretroviral medications he has been taking later this month in order to keep the virus at undetectable levels. After that, the team of researchers will wait for 12 weeks to see if the infection returns. If no infection is found, they will declare it a success.

HIV Virus Replication Mechanism

In order to replicate itself, the HIV virus targets CD4 cells, which are the body's immune system, and destroys them. However, some HIV-infected cells can become latent and stop actively producing new virus copies, sometimes for years. These so-called reservoirs are a significant obstacle to HIV cure.

HIV is a difficult enemy to combat because it can inject itself into our own DNA, go dormant, and reactivate at different times throughout a person's life, according to Jonathan Li, a doctor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and HIV researcher at Harvard University. It has been difficult to target these reservoirs while avoiding damaging essential CD4 cells.

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Crispr in Treating HIV

Antiretroviral medications can stop viral replication and remove the virus from the blood; but they are unable to reach these reservoirs, necessitating daily prescription for the rest of the patient's life. Excision BioTherapeutics, however, is hoping that Crispr can totally eliminate HIV.

In numerous other research, Crispr is being utilized to treat a few diseases caused by genetic mutations. Crispr is being used by scientists to modify people's own cells. However, excision researchers are using the gene-editing technique against the virus for the HIV experiment. Two crucial HIV genomic areas for viral replication are the focus of two gene-editing agents in the Crispr infusion. Because the virus needs its entire genome to reproduce, Crispr prevents that from happening by removing portions of the genome.

Researchers from Temple University and the University of Nebraska discovered in 2019 that deleting certain areas using Crispr rendered the rat and mouse genomes HIV-free. The Temple group also demonstrated a year later that the method effectively eliminated viral DNA from macaques infected with SIV, the monkey equivalent of HIV.

The discovery, according to the research leader and co-founder Kamel Khalili, was a critical step toward testing the treatment on humans. He claimed they didn't want to get rid of the viral genome. Nevertheless, create any damage in a different area of the human genome at the same time. and then give the patients a new set of issues. He said they needed to make sure they found a spot in HIV that didn't cross over with the human genome.