Electron micrograph of HIV, which currently requires lifelong medication
Scott Karmazin/Alamy Stock Photo
A new way to eradicate HIV from the body may one day become a treatment for the viral infection, although it has not yet been proven effective in humans.
The strategy uses a relatively new genetic technology called CRISPR, which cuts DNA to introduce errors into the virus’s genetic material inside immune cells. “These findings represent a critical advance in designing treatment strategies,” the researchers said. Elena Herrera Carrillo The University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands said in a statement.
While HIV infection was once almost always fatal, people infected with the virus can now take drugs that stop it from multiplying. As long as they take their medication every day, this can give them an almost normal lifespan.
But when people are first infected, some viruses insert their DNA into their immune cells, where they remain dormant. If they stop taking HIV medications, this DNA “reawakens” and the virus starts spreading through their immune system again.
In order to cure, we need some way to kill any dormant virus in the body. Several strategies have been tried, but so far none have been found to be effective.
The latest approach uses a gene-editing system called CRISPR. Originally discovered in bacteria, it localizes to specific DNA sequences and cuts them. By changing the target DNA sequence, the system has the potential to be transformed into gene therapy for a variety of diseases, with the first such therapy approved in the United States and Britain last year to treat sickle cell anemia.
Several research groups are looking into using CRISPR that targets HIV genes to eliminate dormant viruses. Now, Carrillo and her team have shown that, when tested on immune cells in a dish, their CRISPR system can disable all viruses, eliminating them from those cells.This work will be European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Next month in Barcelona, ​​Spain.
Jonathan Stoy The Francis Crick Institute in London said that while the results were encouraging, the next step would be trials in animals and eventually humans to show that the treatment can reach all immune cells where HIV is dormant. Some of these cells are thought to be in the bone marrow, but other body parts may also be involved, he said. “There remains considerable uncertainty about whether other reservoirs exist elsewhere in the body,” he said.
A California company called Excision BioTherapeutics has previously shown that CRISPR-based methods can Reducing the amount of dormant viruses in monkeys infected with HIV-like viruses.
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