Dutch scientists have used the gene editing technique CRISPR to eliminate dormant HIV in immune cells. The lab experiment offers hope for a possible cure.
Scientists have developed a new way to wipe out the HIV virus from cells. This method could one day be transformed into a means that prevents infection with the virus and thus the disease AIDS. To do this, researchers will first have to demonstrate whether the technology also works in humans.
The strategy uses CRISPR, a recent gene editing technique. In the experiment, the technique cuts the DNA of the virus that has invaded immune cells to cause errors to occur. “These results represent a crucial step in the development of a therapy that leads to a cure,” says virologist Elena Herrera Carrillo from the Amsterdam UMC.
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While infection with HIV was once almost certainly fatal, today those infected can take medications to prevent reproduction of the virus. This gives them a practically normal lifespan as long as they diligently take their medications every day.
But during the initial infection, the virus funnels some of its DNA into immune cells, where it remains dormant. As soon as the patient stops taking HIV drugs, the waiting DNA ‘wakes up’ and the virus starts spreading through the immune system again.
A medicine will therefore have to find a way to eliminate this dormant virus in the body. Researchers have tried various strategies, but so far without success.
Haircut
The Dutch researchers have now developed a new approach using the DNA editing technique CRISPR. This technique, which has its origins in bacteria, can cut specific pieces of DNA. The system can be used as a form of gene therapy for various conditions. A first treatment based on this principle was approved last year in the US and the United Kingdom to cure the blood disease sickle cell anemia.
Various groups are now investigating whether CRISPR can target a specific gene from HIV, so that the dormant virus is eliminated. Carrillo and her team managed to use CRISPR to disable the virus in a petri dish with immune cells, thereby removing the virus from all cells.
Storage areas
Despite the promising results, says virologist Jonathan Stoye from the Francis Crick Institute in London that we do not yet know whether the treatment can also reach all immune cells with HIV in people. To find out, researchers must first conduct animal experiments and clinical trials on humans. The researchers think that some of these cells are not only located in the spinal cord, but also in possibly unknown places. ‘There is still quite a bit of uncertainty about whether there are still storage locations in other parts of the body.’
A California company called Excision BioTherapeutics has also shown that a CRIPSR-based method can reduce the amount of dormant virus in infected monkeys. This was a virus that looks very similar to HIV.
2024-03-30 11:12:09
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