FLICKR, NIAIDCRISPR/Cas9 gene editing has shown remarkable therapeutic potential, including the ability to fight pathogens like HIV. But the same process that inactivates the deadly virus may also enable it to escape the treatment, according to research led by Chen Liang of McGill University in Montreal, published today (April 7) in Cell Reports.
“It’s very nice work which offers important information related to development and use of CRISPR/Cas9 for suppressing viruses—in this case, HIV infection,” neuroscientist Kamel Khalili of Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia who was not part of the study told The Scientist. “Their data suggest targeting a single site within a viral gene can accelerate viral escape and emergence of mutant virus that remains resistant to initial targeting molecules.”
The findings essentially replicate those of another group, led by Atze Das of the Center for Infection and Immunity Amsterdam. The Das team’s findings appeared last month (February 16) in Molecular Therapy.
“We both demonstrated HIV-1 can be inhibited by the CRISPR/Cas system, and [that] the virus can escape,” Das, who was not ...
