Will one shot cure AIDS?

New therapy can cure HIV with one injection

Svetlana Maslova, High-tech+

The researchers combined CRISPR with viral carriers and ensured that white blood cells independently and continuously produced antibodies to HIV. Preclinical trials have shown that single HIV treatment can be a very real prospect.

B cells are a type of white blood cells that are responsible for the production of antibodies against viruses. These cells are formed in the bone marrow and so far only a few scientists have managed to create them outside the body. Now researchers from Israel and the United States have achieved this capability in the body for the first time and forced B cells to produce antibodies against HIV, according to a press release from Tel Aviv University.

Article by Nahmad et al. In vivo engineered B cells secrete high titers of broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies in mice published in the journal Nature Biotechnology – VM.

To do this, scientists combined the CRISPR method with the ability of viral carriers to deliver the desired genes to target cells. As a result, modified B cells are stimulated to active division upon contact with the virus. That is, the cause of the disease is used to combat it, the authors explain. In addition, if the virus changes, then the B cells also change.

In other words, this is the first drug that can evolve in the human body and defeat HIV.

In animal models, it was shown that the treatment led to the production of a large number of antibodies in the blood, which effectively neutralized HIV in laboratory experiments.

"We have developed an innovative treatment that can defeat HIV with a single injection and lead to a significant improvement in the quality of life of patients," concluded the author of the work Adi Barzel from Tel Aviv University.

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