AIDS: researchers have first achieved HIV elimination

Researchers in the United States have successfully eradicated HIV, the virus that causes AIDS , in some infected mice. Scientists from the University of Nebraska and Temple University of Philadelphia behind this feat revealed their findings in a study published in the journal Nature  .

For this study, the researchers combined two advanced technologies. They first resorted to a form of long-acting slow-release antiretroviral treatment, called Laser ART, and secondly to the so-called Crispr technique of genetic editing.

The ART laser treatment was administered for several weeks in a targeted manner, to try to minimize the replication of the virus, in areas of the body considered as “reservoirs” of HIV, that is to say tissues where it remains normally latent, like the spinal cord or the spleen. Then, to remove the last traces of HIV, researchers used Crispr-Cas9, a genetic editing tool (sometimes called “genetic scissors”) that can remove and replace unwanted parts of the genome. 

A method not yet applicable in humans

Their goal was to fight the phenomenon of HIV resurgence. So far, in current antiretroviral therapies, the virus remains in the body in latent form at various locations and reactivates if the treatment stops, requiring it to be taken for life.

According to the summary of the study, these results “are a demonstration of the feasibility of permanent elimination of the virus” . But the prospect of a possible application in human patients is still very far, according to the researchers. “This is an important first step towards a much longer path for the eradication of the virus,” they conclude in their study. 

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