CRISPR: Promising cure for HIV

knowledge March 27, 2024, 10:50 pm

Researchers are exploring a groundbreaking technique to potentially eradicate HIV from the body, offering a glimpse of hope for transforming this method into a viable cure. This innovative strategy leverages CRISPR, a gene-editing tool derived from a natural defense mechanism found in bacteria. CRISPR, which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, allows scientists to make precise cuts in DNA. This capability originates from bacteria’s immune response to viruses called bacteriophages, wherein they cut the DNA of invading phages, thereby disabling them. Utilizing this mechanism, scientists can introduce errors into the DNA of the HIV within immune cells, aiming to permanently eliminate the virus.