UNMC Shares In Discovery Of Method To Remove HIV DNA From Animals

OMAHA – Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center collaborated with the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University for a promising advancement toward a possible cure for human HIV infection.

Howard Gendelman of the Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases at UNMC called the elimination of HIV-1 DNA from an animal a groundbreaking discovery.

HIV treatment currently uses  antiretroviral therapy, which suppresses HIV replication, but does not remove it from the body.

Dr. Kamel Khalili of Temple University successfully uses gene editing and other therapy to reduce HIV DNA from infected cells in rats and mice.

In the present study, the antiretroviral therapy was combined with gene editing.

Drs. Gendelman and Khalili: “The big message of this work is that it takes both CRISPR-Cas9 and virus suppression through a method such as LASER ART, administered together, to produce a cure for HIV infection.

“We now have a clear path to move ahead to trials in non-human primates and possibly clinical trials in human patients within the year.”

 

Photo caption: 

Members of the UNMC research team included: Back row (left-right) - James Hilaire, Brady Sillman, Ph.D., Larisa Poluektova, M.D., Ph.D., Santhi Gorantla, Ph.D., Benson Edagwa, Ph.D., and Hang Su; Front row -- R. Lee Mosley, Ph.D., JoEllyn McMillan, Ph.D., Howard Gendelman, M.D., Prasanta Dash, Ph.D., Saumi Mathews, Ph.D., Mary Banoub, and Zhiyi Lin. Missing from photo - Aditya Bade, Ph.D. and Nagsen Gautam, Ph.D