HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
nature.com
HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
1–10 of 31 posts
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#2With the caveat that I have only had this explained to me ...
The one location in the HIV genome that consistently doesn't mutate is the hexamer boundary of the viral capsid. Seems like that would make a better taerget sequence as a result.
Anyone here know why they chose the sequences that they did?
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#3I am wondering how they know these mutations were not present to begin with. Also, how many cells were there before the CRISPR treatment vs after? What was the rate at which they divide under these conditions? Perhaps they just killed off enough of the cells with the CRISPR/cas-9 treatment and it took a few days for them to recover to the point of producing detectable CA-p24 (an indicator of HIV) levels.
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#4Perhaps a stupid question, but the article says "HIV has already shown the ability to evolve resistance to all manner of antiviral drugs (as well as the human immune system). This happens because its genetic material is copied by enzymes that are prone to error. Most mistakes stop the virus working, but occasionally a mutation is beneficial for HIV, allowing it to evade attack." is it possible to fix the gene copying mechanism in HIV and thereby eliminate its ability to mutate so quickly?
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#5The biggest problem with HIV is that when you're dealing with one person with "HIV" you're actually fighting dozens of different adaptations of the virus, much like how cancer tumors differentiate into dozens of cell types.
My approach would be to compare and contrast SIV and HIV defense strategies in humans and chimps. How does the TRIM5-alpha in chimps manage to fight off HIV, and how does human TRIM5-alpha fight off SIV?
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#6Perhaps a stupid question, but the article says "HIV has already shown the ability to evolve resistance to all manner of antiviral drugs (as well as the human immune system). This happens because its genetic material is copied by enzymes that are prone to error. Most mistakes stop the virus working, but occasionally a mutation is beneficial for HIV, allowing it to evade attack." is it possible to fix the gene copying…
The problem is not that it will mutate, the problem is it has mutated so your treatment ends up heavily selecting for that mutation.
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#7Perhaps a stupid question, but the article says "HIV has already shown the ability to evolve resistance to all manner of antiviral drugs (as well as the human immune system). This happens because its genetic material is copied by enzymes that are prone to error. Most mistakes stop the virus working, but occasionally a mutation is beneficial for HIV, allowing it to evade attack." is it possible to fix the gene copying…
The problem is reverse transcriptase[1] (the enzyme that causes the copy errors) is a key part of how HIV infects the cell[2]. If we could fix that, we could simply block it from working at all, stopping the virus's ability to copy itself into the cell's chromosome. This is actually how a lot of the HIV drugs work (reverse transcriptase inhibitors[3]).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_transcriptase
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS1GODinO8w#t=100
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse-transcriptase_inhibito...
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#8Perhaps a stupid question, but the article says "HIV has already shown the ability to evolve resistance to all manner of antiviral drugs (as well as the human immune system). This happens because its genetic material is copied by enzymes that are prone to error. Most mistakes stop the virus working, but occasionally a mutation is beneficial for HIV, allowing it to evade attack." is it possible to fix the gene copying…
The problem is reverse transcriptase[1] (the enzyme that causes the copy errors) is a key part of how HIV infects the cell[2]. If we could fix that, we could simply block it from working at all, stopping the virus's ability to copy itself into the cell's chromosome. This is actually how a lot of the HIV drugs work (reverse transcriptase inhibitors[3]). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_transcriptase [2] https…
So then why are retroviruses so relatively rare? Why aren't they the dominant type of virus?
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#9Perhaps a stupid question, but the article says "HIV has already shown the ability to evolve resistance to all manner of antiviral drugs (as well as the human immune system). This happens because its genetic material is copied by enzymes that are prone to error. Most mistakes stop the virus working, but occasionally a mutation is beneficial for HIV, allowing it to evade attack." is it possible to fix the gene copying…
Yeah, exactly.. I was thinking the same thing.. Make it not change, and then get rid of it..
But I think there could still be a underlying problem of having the Ca9 T cells to do this to all of the HIV infected cells..
Re: HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is reverse transcriptase[1] (the enzyme that causes the copy errors) is a key part of how HIV infects the cell[2]. If we could fix that, we could simply block it from working at all, stopping the virus's ability to copy itself into the cell's chromosome. This is actually how a lot of the HIV drugs work (reverse transcriptase inhibitors[3]). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_transcriptase [2] https…
So then why are retroviruses so relatively rare? Why aren't they the dominant type of virus?
Varying levels of infectivity are at least one reason why some viruses are easier to get infected by. They work via different mechanisms, like different cellular receptors, and this also plays a role. Etc...