Research area (400 words maximum)
According to UNAIDS (2022) HIV remains the deadliest pandemic of our time and new variants of the virus have been identified one of which seems to be more virulent and contagious and even if it’s no health threat yet for the public it’s alarming and highlighting the urgency to halt the virus pandemic. Historically the discovery of HIV in 1983 made clear that the world was facing a new uncurable infectious disease that spread across the globe making no nation immune so that new strategies were needed to face this new battle (Snowden, 2008). Although many countries are seeing a decrease in the incidence and an increase in prevalence of the disease, new cases are on the rising since 2010 especially in countries like Europe and America effectively showing a resurgence (Govender et al., 2021). Up until now there is still no cure for the retrovirus and current therapies aim to control the disease (highly active antiretroviral therapy), however the discovery of Clustered Regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) associated with Cas9 system brought a molecular tool in gene-editing technology that offers hope in developing future applications for an effective treatment against HIV-1 infections (Sandal et al., 2020). CRISPR-Cas9 targets a gene (CCR-5) on with blood cells that can confer resistance to HIV infections. It’s a sort of complementary RNA guide that binds to that gene and activates Cas9 nuclease to cut the complex inactivating it (Sandal et al., 2020). The inspiration of targeting CCR-5 came from a small number of people with a natural mutation in the gene that confers them immunity to most types of HIV. Ledford (2011) reported on Nature a successful gene-therapy method in the clinic that specifically disrupted CCR-5. The study tested a zinc finger enzyme developed by Sangamo BioSciences that successfully saw the rise of CD4+ cells in infected patients, however there are still a lot of insecurities about the working of the methods and the potential side effects hence the need of research further whether gene editing therapies can provide a potential cure for HIV.
Which is a valid therapeutic method to cure HIV-1? What has been demonstrated so far in clinical trials? What are the current limitations? Which technique is best to develop? What’s the relationship benefits/side effects when using gene editing approach? (381 words)
