Can HIV-AIDS be cured? Preliminary results of vaccine say yes

A team of researchers has created a novel vaccine that can treat HIV-AIDS via gene editing, which might be a game changer in medical science. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) assaults the immune system and, if left untreated, can result in Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). HIV was found in a variety of chimp in Central Africa and is thought to have spread to humans as early as the late 1800s.

It should be mentioned that there is currently no cure for HIV/AIDS, and no genetic therapy is available. The team has achieved preliminary success in neutralising the virus with a single vaccination created by manipulating type B white blood cells that trigger the immune system to make HIV-neutralizing antibodies. The study was led by a team from Tel Aviv University's School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences.

The study's findings were published in the journal Nature, and the antibodies were described as "safe, powerful, and scalable, which may be relevant not just to infectious disorders but also in the treatment of noncommunicable ailments, such as cancer and autoimmune disease."

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The team claims to have found a novel therapy that may destroy the virus with a single injection, perhaps resulting in a significant improvement in the patients' condition.

The researchers utilised CRISPR, a technique based on a bacterial immune system, to genetically edit viruses, and the bacteria used the CRISPR systems as a type of molecular "search engine" to identify viral sequences and cut them to disable them. Researchers aim to be able to manufacture treatment for AIDS, other infectious illnesses, and some forms of cancer caused by viruses in the future years.

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• AIDS
• HIV
• HIV-AIDS
• antibodies
• gene editing