In order to find a cure for HIV, researchers should be given the chance to edit the human genome.
To understand how CRISPR is being used to cure HIV, Gus Cairns, a journalist specialized in HIV, claims that trial and error is important to making advancements in medicine and technology. A recent study by Cathy Wang has taken previous studies into consideration and has improved on the approach. After an earlier study showed that applying CRISPR at only one site caused rapid cell division to reoccur, readjustments were made to hopefully delay the cells from dividing. Since the cells rapidly divided when infected at just one site, the T cells were infected at 3 different areas to target different parts of the HIV and DNA using CRISPR technology. The study resulted in “viral production levels 83% lower in cells treated with T4, by 95% in those treated with T10, and by about 98% in the cells treated with LTR-B”. That means that the various targeted sites showed an improvement from the previous study and lowered the amount of viral cells produced. This adjustment proves that by trial and error, the amount of targeted sites can be changed to find the one that causes delay in viral cell production. Although, the cells ultimately started rapidly growing again after 8 days, the study showed progress after changes were made. This study shows that this technique has potential to lower the rate at which viral cells are made. It also indicates that this could become a viable method if scientists are given the opportunity to edit the genome.
Study Shows Lower Viral Cell Production
Impact on Children
To show the importance of HIV being passed on to a child, Tao Xu, a professor of nanotechnology, describes how they are impacted mentally, socially, and physically. A child who is born with HIV has been proven to be more than just an obstacle in their future relationships. It has been noted that the “HIV infection has impacted negatively on the children in terms of education, health and peer association”. In other words, HIV can affect them making friends, cause them to miss school, and worsen their health. The disease has negative effects on the child’s health because the disease and the medication have symptoms, such as fatigue, bleeding, and high
More Effective Methods
In order to show how this technology and previous techniques have been successful, Antonio Regalado, a biomedicine editor for MIT Technology Review, reports the research done by Fan, a stem cell scientist. This is only the second attempt to work on germ line (reproductive) cells. The current research is showing that this method could eventually be effective. Fan and his research team believe that it is “necessary to keep developing and improving the technologies for precise genetic modifications in humans”. Research should not stop just because it is not 100% effective yet. This is the time to make adjustments and work on the mistakes that have been made. It takes time with medicine and science. There was originally no treatment for HIV and AIDS. When someone was infected with HIV prior to the 1970’s, they were basically given a death sentence. ART has allowed those who are diagnosed to live a better life. That could happen if CRISPR is given the chance. Proper funding and research needs to be put in place, so that CRISPR technology is not wasted. Just like ART provided hope for an incurable disease, editing the human genome using CRISPR technology does too.
This issue of children bearing HIV from the parent is even more prevalent in developing countries, such as Sub- Saharan Africa. Joanne Embree, a professor of pediatric health, shows that 5-10% of children born there will be infected with HIV from their mother. ART can be expensive for these families who may not have the means to pay for proper treatment of the disease in their child. That can then lead to worsening medical conditions down the road and cause vulnerability to other diseases such as Tuberculosis. There is also a negative stigma of people with HIV in the community in these countries. People may not understand the disease and how it is transmitted. They make be wary that they can contract it by touching an infected person. In order to make the lives of children better, there needs to be something done about it. It’s not just an issue of if it is ethically right to edit their genes—it is an issue of why isn’t everything possible to help these children being done. The regulations and lack of funding make it difficult for researchers to make a difference.
blood sugar. That causes them to miss school and not perform as well as other students, which can then impact their relationships with their peers. It can also impact their personality making them more nervous and timid to go out and form relationships with other kids and students. At such a young age, they should not have to worry about being sick and taking medications. Eventually, they may even go through a phase where they want to stop taking the medication. That will then counteract the progress made previously to control the cell replication. This can be prevented if researchers are able to edit the genome and give children the chance they deserve early on.