Scientists have cured HIV in mice. They say that a human cure could be next.

Nearly 37 million people living with HIV could be affected by a new study published in Nature Communications earlier this week.

Scientists have discovered that the HIV virus can be completely eradicated in some infected mice using a gene editing technology, called CRISPR, and a slow-release anti-virus drug. The positive results were obtained by two teams of specialists – including virologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, pharmacologists and pharmaceutical experts – led by Kamel Khalili of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and Howard Gendelman of the University. of Nebraska Medical Center.

"We believe this study is a breakthrough, as it demonstrates for the first time, after 40 years of the AIDS epidemic, that HIV is a treatable disease," said Khalili, director of the department of neuroscience and director of the Center. of neurovirology. the complete NeuroAIDS Center.

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is a disease that targets human T cells, responsible for fighting infections, bacteria, parasites and other antigens. The virus is spread through contact with certain bodily fluids of an infected person and, without treatment, HIV can turn into AIDS, which weakens and even destroys the human immune system to the point of inability to fight against infections. This last stage of the virus is what has cost millions of lives since the declaration of the epidemic.

However, today, with effective treatment, people living with HIV can lead healthy lives. They can even reduce the levels of the virus in their bodies to undetectable levels, which also prevents them from transmitting the virus to other people.

Effective treatment for HIV infection has not been found yet, but the team of scientists has brought the world closer to a solution.

The study was performed on mice scientifically engineered to produce human T cells vulnerable to HIV infection. Prior to the start of the joint study, Gendelman was conducting trials on LASER ART – also known as slow-acting, slow-acting antiretroviral therapy – as Khalili spent five years experimenting with CRISPR. The study combined their independent research.

The team first used Gendelman's LASER laser treatment to prevent replication of virus cells. The drug has been used to target areas of the body where HIV cells may develop, such as the spleen, bone marrow, and brain tissue. They then used the gene editing tool to clean the HIV chromosome from the mouse's DNA. After years of examining tissue where infected cells could have been hiding in mice, scientists were able to confirm that the process had completely eliminated the HIV virus in nine of the 23 mice used in the study.

However, Khalili, Gendelman and their team are well aware that this is only a step in the right direction, but that it is not proof of complete treatment for humans.

"Things that work in mice, may not work in men," said Gendelman. "The limitations of any mouse job have to do with the species, the way the drug is administered, the distribution, which is much easier than that of a man or a woman. "

The team is now looking to replicate this study on other species to advance their research.

"We now have a clear path to go to trials on nonhuman primates and possibly clinical trials on human patients by the end of the year," Khalili said in a press release.

Khalili also explained that one should increase the efficiency and safety of their method before they can go ahead. The team hopes that his method will work in his current study on primates. The effectiveness of their method in the study on primates will take nine months to a year to corroborate.

If the study gives positive results, the Food and Drug Administration could approve the first phase of human clinical trials as early as the summer of 2020. However, other experts, such as Kevin Morris, professor at the Center for Gene Therapy of the City of Hope that the side effects of this type of treatment on humans are of great concern, despite the fact that the discovery exalts them.

"[It] risk of causing cancer, "he said. "This is because the approach depends on the use of a gene therapy known for its long persistence in the body. Long-term persistence could lead to CRISPR – which eliminates HIV from the cell – suppressing other sites in an uncontrolled manner. Cleavage of other sites in the human cell could cause this cell to become cancerous. "

There are other methods of treating HIV that continue to be tested, such as a vaccine that has been shown to be safe and that has shown evidence of an immune response in humans and humans. the rhesus monkey. The researchers say they have also been able to cure two HIV-positive people by transplanting stem cells from individuals with extremely rare genetic mutations that make them resistant to the virus.

Although the impact is not immediate, it is clear that progress has been made on a number of fronts to develop a cure for HIV. If and when it will be achieved, it will change the lives of the global human population who have been struggling against the virus since its claim to the status of the epidemic in the 1980s.

"We are at the dawn of a scientific revolution of human genomes that can change the course, quality and longevity of life," Gendelman said.

This article originally appeared in Global Citizen. You can read it here.