Cathy Wang, a researcher part of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at USC, and her team conducted research that improved on initial research. When CRISPR was applied at only one site, it caused rapid cell division to reoccur, so Wang made adjustments to hopefully delay division. They infected the T cells at 3 different areas to target different areas of the HIV and DNA. 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. Wang understands that this method is not perfect yet, but says that for future research, targeting T cells and other areas "should allow even more sophisticated applications of genome editing against" such a horrible disease like HIV.
Yong Fan, a stem cell scientist, and his team conducted research that indicates how CRISPR technology could eventually be effective to cure HIV in an article. They gathered fertilized eggs that were unable to be used in in-vitro fertility due to extra chromosomes and targeted the gene, CCR5, a protein receptor in the immune system, because humans who carry the mutated version are resistant to HIV. Using CRISPR, they mutated CCR5 in order to change the shape of it and prevent the HIV from coming into the T cell. Although only 4/22 were successfully modified, the team reiterates the importance of improving the CRISPR technology and working on the precision of editing the genes, so that maybe one day they will find the cure for HIV. Fan and his team also believe that"preventing any application of genome editing on the human germline" is best until there's a consensus on the ethics of how the technology is applied.
Yong Fan
Further Research is Key
