The virus that causes AIDS has been altered so that it can exchange the human genome in way that could improve and extend the lives of people with a multiplicity of disease - include HIV itself .
scientist have been conduct experiment on the function of viruses for gene therapy since the former 1990s . Natural pick has been hone the capacity of virus to lick their way into prison cell for million of years . If we can take advantage of that capacity to hand over beneficial gene the potential uses for medicine could be dateless .
Not all computer virus are evenly suited to this task . The immune system make out many viruses and attack them . Other potential carriers are genetically unstable , making them undesirable to the task . Naturally it is also essential that any virus used is either harmless , or has been modified to make it so .
IneLIFEthree medical research worker from Aarhus University , Denmark , name “ adapt lentiviral vector as carriers of interior designer nuclease protein , bring home the bacon efficient place gene perturbation in vector - treated cell line and primary cells . ”
Enzymes developed by microorganisms to slice viral DNA have been used as so call scissors grip in gene therapy , but the targeting has improved in late years with the creation of hybrid enzymes .
" Now we can simultaneously cut out the part of the genome that is broken in wan cellphone , and patch the gap that rise in the hereditary selective information which we have take away from the genome . The young look here is that we can bring the scissor hold and the patch together in the HIV particles in a fashion that no one else has done before , " says author companion Professor Jacob Giehm Mikkelsen .
While the safety issues involved in using virus are obvious , cistron therapy usually necessitate a more hidden danger . " In the past , the gene for the scissors has been transferred to the cells , which is dangerous because the cell hold on producing scissors grip which can start cut off uncontrollably , ” say Mikkelsen . " But because we make the scissors in the form of a protein , they only cut for a few hours , after which they are discover down . ”
Meanwhile , the squad ’s computer virus brings along the inherited material command to patch the hole . “ " We call this a ' hit - and - run ' technique because the process is debauched and leave no suggestion , ” read Mikkelsen .
The Danish team are not the first touse HIV as their rescue fomite , but they sliced the virus ' deoxyribonucleic acid into shorter department and merge these to succession for score the intercrossed enzymes to bring forth the “ fusion proteins ” . This approach gives much greater controller over the change forge to cells ' DNA .
Not only could cells be modify to bring around hereditary disease , they could be dose with genes suit to fight cancers . There has even been body of work on having cellsproduce anti - viral protein , so that one sidereal day modified HIV might bring be used to bring genetic sequences that protect against HIV itself .
When applying the technique to cultured cells the Micckelsen and his fellow worker bump 20 % were successfully edited . While one in five is far from idealistic , Professor Perry Hackett of the University of Minnesotacommentedin the same version of eLIFE that this “ approaches the levels required for effectual factor therapy in whole beast — including humankind . ” Further work may raise the success pace , although app to living creatures is still yet to be demonstrate .
