CRISPR could disable and cure HIV, suggests promising lab experiment

The gene-editing technique CRISPR disabled HIV that lay dormant in immune cells in a lab experiment, raising hopes for an eventual cure

By Clare Wilson

19 March 2024

An electron micrograph of HIV, which currently requires lifelong medication

Scott Camazine/Alamy Stock Photo

A new way to eradicate HIV from the body could one day be turned into a cure for infection by this virus, although it hasn’t yet been shown to work in people.

The strategy uses a relatively recent genetic technique called CRISPR, which can make cuts in DNA to introduce errors into viral genetic material within immune cells. “These findings represent a pivotal advancement towards designing a cure strategy,” researcher Elena Herrera Carrillo at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands said in a statement.

While infection with HIV was once nearly always fatal, those with the virus can now take drugs that stop it from reproducing. This gives them a nearly normal lifespan, as long as they diligently take their medicines every day.

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But when people are first infected, some of the virus inserts its DNA into their immune cells, where it stays dormant. If they stop taking their HIV medicines, this DNA “reawakens” and the virus starts spreading through their immune systems again.

For a cure, we need some way of killing any dormant virus in the body. Several strategies have been tried, but none has so far been found to work.