CNBC by Ashley Turner 7/2/2019
Researchers say they’re closer to finding cure for HIV after using CRISPR technology to eliminate disease in live mice for the first time
Scientists cured nine mice of HIV for the first time in history, according to a new study.
The researchers used a combination of CRISPR technology and an antiretroviral therapy called LASER ART to eliminate the virus.
The CRISPR-LASER ART method is now being tested in primates.
Researchers say they’re one step closer to finding a potential cure for HIV after successfully eliminating the virus in living mice for the first time.
Using a combination of CRISPR gene-editing technology and a therapeutic treatment called LASER ART, scientists at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center said they erased HIV DNA from the genomes of animals in what they call an unprecedented study that was published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
“We think this study is a major breakthrough because it for the first time demonstrates after 40 years of the AIDS epidemic that the HIV disease is a curable disease,†said study co-author Dr. Kamel Khalili, chair of the department of neuroscience and director of the Center for Neurovirology and the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at Temple University.
About 1.1 million people in the U.S. live with HIV, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system and makes a person more susceptible to falling ill. If HIV is not treated, it can turn into AIDS, a disease in which the virus badly damages the immune system. People with AIDS on average live about three years after their diagnosis, according to HIV.gov.
The virus is currently treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART), which suppresses it from replicating and prevents many patients in the U.S. from developing AIDS. ART does not rid the body of HIV, though, and if a patient stops treatment the virus will continue to replicate.
But now researchers say they’re able to destroy the virus in “humanized†mice, which were injected with human bone marrow to imitate the human immune system.
More:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/02/researchers-used-crispr-technology-to-cure-hiv-in-living-mice.html
