The therapy aims to fight HIV and in addition to clearing infected cells of the virus, it can make the DNA of healthy immune cells resistant to virus attacks.
Therefore, the successful recovery of HIV patients after bone marrow transplant prompted them to develop a new approach. The main goal is not only to clear the body of the virus, but also to remove CCR5 receptors from immune cells, making them suitable for HIV infection.
Temple University professor Kamel Khalili explained that the developed procedure is simpler and more practical due to the use of CRISPR/Cas9-based gene therapy injections.
The researchers conducted experiments on cultures of human immune cells and mice with partially human immune systems. The rodents were infected with HIV, after which scientists used antiretroviral drugs to suppress the infection and administer experimental gene therapy.
The next step is to conduct similar experiments on primates.
Source: Ferra
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