Drugs combined with ＂gene magic scissors＂ can strangle HIV

　　Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, July 2 (Reporter Zhang Mengran) According to a study published in the British journal Nature Communication on the 2nd, the American research team reported a new breakthrough in combination therapy: after using a drug delivery system to continuously release antiviral drugs and treating based on the gene editing technology known as "gene magic scissors", the virus was not detected in a subgroup of mice infected with HIV.

　　A total of 13 mice were treated in two separate trials, and 5 of them showed no signs of HIV infection for up to 5 weeks after treatment. In contrast, it is easy to detect HIV in mice that have received one of these treatments alone.

　　HIV is a virus that causes defects in human immune system. HIV directly invades the human immune system, destroying cellular immunity and humoral immunity, which not only makes it difficult for the human immune system to resist invasion, but also brings difficulties to the development of specific therapeutic drugs and preventive vaccines. At present, patients infected with HIV mainly rely on various antiviral drugs for treatment. However, this therapy can’t cure the patient, and it requires lifelong medication.

　　In view of this, the Lewis Katz School of Medicine of Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center team developed a combination therapy to target HIV in a group of infected mice. The therapy relies on an antiviral drug formula and CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The former will slowly release the drug and inhibit the virus activity for many days, while the latter will eliminate the virus genetic code in infected cells by cutting off the relevant DNA fragments.

　　After continuous treatment, nearly one-third of the mice did not reach the detectable level of HIV. The research team used a large number of different techniques to study mice and found that HIV was not detected in infected cells and tissue sites of these mice within 5 weeks after receiving treatment.

　　At present, the results of mouse experiments are considered promising, and researchers plan to carry out further research immediately to improve drug delivery against viruses and specifically eliminate latent viral infections.

　　Chief editor circle

　　Curing AIDS was a difficult problem without rules 10 years ago. Now, with the simplification of genetic engineering technology, many promising ideas have emerged. For example, defects caused by microorganisms are corrected with tools given by another microorganism. Although CRISPR has been popular for many years, the corresponding gene editing therapy that can be used in clinic is still in its infancy. The progress made in the field of AIDS has made people more confident in this simple technology with great potential.