The Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, is a virus that assaults the immune system, making it tougher for the physique to struggle off illnesses. Based on the World Well being Group (WHO), 39 million folks had been dwelling with HIV by the top of 2022, together with adults and kids.
Most individuals dwelling with HIV have an HIV-1 an infection (HIV-2 is gradual to develop and doesn’t unfold as quick). The HIV virus is unfold by exchanging physique fluids, primarily via unprotected sexual activity, sharing needles or syringes, and from an contaminated mom to her child throughout childbirth or breastfeeding.
An HIV-1 an infection is harmful as a result of the virus assaults the immune system, the human cells that defend in opposition to an infection. It may be deadly with out well timed medical intervention and lifelong remedy.
Sadly, there’s nonetheless no remedy for HIV. One of many major causes for that is the power of the virus to mutate continuously, making it difficult to develop a single remedy that may goal all strains. Additionally, some cells contaminated with HIV can turn into dormant, solely to resurface years later. This is without doubt one of the explanation why HIV-infected people want remedy for all times.
Nevertheless, there’s hope on the horizon with CRISPR.
Utilizing CRISPR to deal with HIV
Utilizing CRISPR, scientists are enhancing out the HIV-infected immune cells within the physique, together with dormant ones. To realize this, CRISPR is getting used to chop fragments from the DNA of the HIV virus itself, rendering it unable to duplicate and unfold.
Early progress on this area has proven promising outcomes, with researchers efficiently utilizing the CRISPR-Cas system to take away HIV from contaminated cells in laboratory experiments. Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless being studied in medical trials to grasp its results on HIV-1 infections in people.
With continued developments, there’s hope that CRISPR expertise will result in a future the place HIV could be successfully handled and even cured.
