Revolutionary Biotech May Offer HIV Cure
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HIV is often depicted as a spherical, free-floating virus coated with spiky protein receptors. This is accurate, but it only represents part of the virus’ life cycle. Like only imagining frogs as tadpoles, our depictions of HIV often fail to tell the whole story. Much of HIV’s life is spent inside our cells, lying dormant amidst our DNA. The reason we so rarely see an image of this latent version of the virus is because, at this point in its life, it’s made of nothing more than DNA itself. There is no viral shell, or membrane, or spiky protein receptors—just the genetic instructions for making them, sort of like a sleeper terrorist cell waiting to be activated.
It’s estimated that, even when no HIV particles are detectable in the body, around ten million cells carry genetic copies of the virus. As a result, the symptoms can be treated, but the infection can’t be cured.
That all stands to change if Kamel Khalili has his way. He and his team at Temple University have directed a protein called CRISPR-Cas9 to sniff out and remove latent HIV genes. The experiment took place in myeloid cells growing in culture -- an apt model, as these nervous system cells have proven to be a particularly good reservoir for HIV. When applied, Cas9 acts like a pair of molecular scissors that cut both ends of the HIV DNA, slicing it out of our chromosomes and preventing it from being used to make more viruses.
“It’s extremely specific, very efficient, and surprisingly, it does what you anticipate it should do,” said Khalili with a laugh. “We’ve actually converted the cell lines which carried the virus to be virus-free cells.”
http://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2014/07/23/revolutionary_biotech_may_offer_hiv_cure_108759.html
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