Re:Elimination of HIV-1 Genomes by CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing
by outworlder on Tuesday March 29, 2016 @04:09PM
(#11384461)
> If you're going to deliver enough lentivirus into an HIV patient to edit all the HIV out of their T-cells, you're going to provoke a massive immune response
From a layman's point of view: isn't that exactly what HIV does in the first place, only faster? As I understand it, on initial infection there can be a major immune response, causing skin rashes or worse.
Re:Elimination of HIV-1 Genomes by CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing
by fndjdh on Tuesday March 29, 2016 @01:12PM
(#11382988)
>If you're going to deliver enough lentivirus into an HIV patient to edit all the HIV out of their T-cells, you're going to provoke a massive immune response.
Not if the HIV infection has progressed to AIDS. Even with a regular HIV infection the immune response would be diminished.
Re:Elimination of HIV-1 Genomes by CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing
by astazangasta on Tuesday March 29, 2016 @01:35PM
(#11383192)
No; HIV targets CD4+ T cells; you will still have CD8s being activated by the lentivirus all over the body and killing cells in response.
This is 2007 - doing this again with CRISPR is, frankly, just using a flashy new toolkit. The fundamental problems with gene therapy remain and are, as usual, the major hurdle to any of this shit being effective. It's easy to edit genomes in a dish; doing it in the human body is orders of magnitude harder.