July 30, 2014
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A recent report suggests scientists may have found a way to edit the virus completely out of human DNA, which would be a potential cure for even latent infections.
HIV is a sneaky virus. It integrates its own genes into a persons DNA, so that even as antiretrovirals hold everything in check, HIV continues to lurk quietly inside cells. However, by using genome editing as a remarkable DNA-cutting method to easily and precisely cut out a particular DNA sequence, HIV can be completely edited out and therefore eradicated.
A study from Dr. Kamel Khalili of Temple University has discovered a technique that will go straight for HIV. Khalili’s team showed that the editing protein could remove copies of the HIV genome from immune cells such as microglia and T cells, which also seemed to prevent any new HIV infection.
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This research is still very new, so of course there are challenges to getting something that worked in a petri dish to work in a human. Since very few cells in the human body are latently infected by HIV, the questions remain: how do you make sure the genome editing gets to those cells? And how do you make sure the protein never goes editing where it shouldn’t?
If these challenges are solved, genome editing could be a big step toward an actual cure for HIV. Since HIV hides itself by basically editing your genome, it makes sense that a cure could involve editing your genome, too.
Hallelujah!