US Scientists create a breakthrough in the fight against HIV after using CRISPR gene-editing technology to uncover how the virus binds to and infects cells, opening the door to developing medications that cure HIV.
CRISPR’s stance for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats is a groundbreaking technology that can precisely and accurately edit the essential components of a gene.
After winning the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a means to edit genomes, the CRISPR co-inventor and her team celebrated with genetically edited CRISPR beer instead of traditional champagne.
A team at Northwestern University sought to find out how the small, unassuming HIV with only 12 proteins and a genome only a third of the size of SARS-CoV-2 hijacks the body’s cells to replicate and spread across systems. The research proposes a new map for comprehending how HIV integrates into our DNA and establishes a chronic infection.
Life science professor Rana Khankan said that the gene-editing power of CRISPR is akin to that of a cursor on a document.
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“You can go in and cause a double-stranded break in any genome, anywhere you want,” Khankan said. “It’s like being able to take your cursor on a Word document … you can place it anywhere there is text, and you can delete, insert and modify.”
Khankan added that in the past, proteins called restriction enzymes would be used to cut DNA; however, they could only cut at specific sites on the genome, while CRISPR can cut at any desired location.
Dr. Andy Murdock, Communications Director at the Innovative Genomics Institute, said although there are not any fully approved clinical applications using CRISPR, there are numerous ongoing clinical trials in the United States, some of which could be approved in the next ten years.
“The turning point is right now,” Murdock said. “It’s been ten years since it (CRISPR) was originally developed … there’s been quite a lot of development.”
In addition to its usage in clinical applications and research, CRISPR can not only be used to insert and delete genes but also to increase or decrease expression. CRISPR has opened doors for revolutionary discoveries and advances in other fields of science, such as diagnostics, which seeks to identify, monitor, and screen diseases or conditions in patients.
