CRISPR gene-editing treatment eliminates HIV-like virus from non-human primates
This is a cool idea for a possible cure of HIV, and it's great to see researchers trying it out. But from what I heard, CRISPR is quite ineffective: when you want to do gene edits with it, you often do it to cell cultures, then keep only those cells where it actually worked. CRISPR does the cutting only, and you rely on cell repair mechanisms to mend the parts together again: they can be mended in any way.<p>Also, the reservoir that makes HIV so tricky is in immune cells that are in a sleep state and only wake up every now and then: can the viral vector reach those?<p>Also important quote from the paper:<p>> The study was not designed to test the effect on the intact viral reservoir as EBT-001 was given when the viral reservoir was not stable and there was still active viral replication. Additionally, as animals were maintained on ART, we did not test the ability of EBT-001 to extend time to viral rebound or eliminate viral reactivation after an analytical treatment interruption.