Scientists have eliminated the HIV virus in test rodents for the first time ever — and now they’re hopeful their experimental methods will work on humans, too.
Through a combination of gene editing and antiviral therapy, researchers at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center eliminated the HIV virus in mice with “humanized” immune systems engineered to be susceptible to HIV.
In a new study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, scientists explained how they first used a new therapeutic strategy called LASER ART (Long-Acting, Slow-Effective Release) to stop HIV cells from replicating, and then extracted HIV DNA from infective genomes.
“We wanted to see whether LASER ART could suppress HIV replication long enough for CRISPR-Cas9 to completely rid cells of viral DNA,” says senior study investigator Kamel Khalili.
As it turned out, they could.
“The big message of this work is that … we now have a clear path to move ahead to trials in non-human primates and possibly clinical trials in human patients within the year,” Khalili says.
Globally, nearly 37 million people have HIV, which can develop into AIDS if not aggressively treated, the World Health Organization reports. However, 2019 has seen historic strides for HIV treatment, with the second and third patients in history to seemingly be cured of the virus being reported within days of each other in March.
Also in March, a 35-year-old woman became the first living HIV-positive kidney donor.
In other developments, a generic version of HIV-prevention drug Truvada — also called PrEP — will be available as early as September 2020, according to maker Gilead Sciences. The daily pill prevents HIV-positive takers from infecting their partners but is very expensive — currently running US patients $1,600 to $2,000 for a month’s supply, while those in other countries can get it for as low as $70.
This all came just a month after the CDC warned in a report that progress on HIV prevention has stalled.