A new study carried out by scientists from the medical school of Amsterdam University in the Netherlands has proved that the use of the latest CRISPR Cas gene editing technology can eliminate all traces of AIDS virus (HIV) in infected cells in the laboratory, bringing new hope for the cure of AIDS. The relevant research paper will be submitted to the European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases to be held in Barcelona from April 27th to 30th. A major challenge in treating HIV is that the virus can integrate its genome into the host DNA, making it extremely difficult to eliminate. The CRISPR Cas gene editing tool provides a new tool for targeting HIV DNA. Researchers suggest that HIV can infect different types of cells and tissues in the body. Their goal is to develop a powerful and safe CRISPR Cas combination therapy that can inactivate different HIV strains in different cellular environments, potentially providing a broad-spectrum therapy that can effectively combat multiple HIV variants. The team used CRISPR Cas and two types of gRNAs to combat "conserved" HIV sequences. This means that they aim to attack parts of the genome that remain unchanged in all known HIV strains and cure HIV infected T cells. They further evaluated various CRISPR Cas systems from different bacteria to determine their effectiveness and safety in treating CD4 T cells infected with HIV. The results showed that the SaCas9 system exhibited excellent antiviral performance, being able to completely inactivate HIV with a single gRNA and cleave viral DNA with two types of gRNAs. The research team emphasizes that the latest research is only a conceptual validation and will not be immediately used to cure HIV. They plan to further optimize the delivery pathways targeting most HIV host cells and will conduct preclinical trials in combination with CRISPR therapy and receptor targeting reagents. (Lai Xin She)