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HIV-AIDS Cure News: Gene-Editing Research Could Mean One Step Closer to Curing HIV Permanently

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) — the virus that causes AIDS — is one of mankind's sneakiest biological nemeses. At present, HIV requires lifetime treatment, but recent reports suggest that humanity may now be closer to finding a permanent cure for this terrible viral infection.

Based on a study conducted by researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh, science and medicine might have taken one step closer to discovering the cure for HIV. Through conducting experiments on three different animal models, the team was able to demonstrate the possibility of preventing HIV from replicating permanently with the use of revolutionary editing tool CRISPR/Cas9.

CRISPR operate by guiding proteins to target specific DNA sequences within the cells of the body, and then editing these sections in a specific way by using protein Cas9 to do the cutting and editing.

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Before this study, it was already determined that CRISPR/Cas9 could be used to cut out HIV-1 from most tissues in the body of mouse models that have been inserted with HIV-1 DNA. However, this time around, researchers were able to demonstrate that CRISPR/Cas9 can also be effective in eradicating HIV-1 DNA from the T-cell genomes of mice models with various forms of diseases.

They tested the technique on transgenic mice infected with HIV-1 DNA, mice infected with a severe case of EcoHIV, and on mice with human immune cells that possess latent HIV.

The treatment on the first group resulted in the reduction of HIV replication by as large as 95%. In the second group, HIV replication was successfully blocked by as much as 96%, which shows for the first time that CRISPR/Cas9 can indeed eradicate HIV-1. In the third group, CRISPR/Cas9 managed to extract latent HIV from the infected human cells that were embedded in the tissues and organs of mice.

According to the team that conducted the research, the results of their study is a significant step toward humanity's efforts to finally put an end to the reign of terror of HIV. More importantly, researchers were also able to confirm that the technique does not just work on active HIV; it could also work on dormant HIV as well.

"We confirmed the data from our previous work and have improved the efficiency of our gene editing strategy. We also show that the strategy is effective in two additional mouse models, one representing acute infection in mouse cells and the other representing chronic, or latent, infection in human cells," lead researcher Dr. Wenhui Hui explained in a statement, according to Science Daily.

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