HIV overcomes CRISPR gene-editing attack

HIV can defeat efforts to cripple it with CRISPR gene-editing technology, researchers say. And the very act of editing — involving snipping at the virus’s genome — may introduce mutations that help it to resist attack.

At least half a dozen papers over the past three years have explored using the popular CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique to combat HIV, but the latest finding, described in a study published on 7 April in Cell Reports (1), adds to questions about the feasibility of the approach. However, the researchers involved say that the discovery is a minor setback that does not preclude the idea altogether.

Some researchers aim to edit genes made by the immune cells that HIV usually infects — called T helper cells — so that the virus cannot find a way in. Others take a different tack: equipping the T cells with gene-editing tools so that they can seek and destroy any HIV that infects them.

This approach seemed simple and efficient in tissue culture, says Bryan Cullen, a virologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who has...