HIV can develop resistance to CRISPR/Cas9
Cell Press
Researchers who used CRISPR/Cas9 to mutate HIV-1 within cellular DNA found that while single mutations can inhibit viral replication, some also led to unexpected resistance. From here, CRISPR/Cas9 can be programmed to target a DNA sequence and cleave viral DNA. Such mutations do no harm to the virus, so these resistant viruses can still replicate, he says The study, a collaborative effort between researchers at McGill University and the University of Montreal in Canada and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in China serves as a cautionary tale for those who hope to apply CRISPR/Cas9 as an antiviral. CRISPR/Cas9 gives a new hope toward finding a cure, not just for HIV-1, but for many other viruses, Liang says. Cell Reports, Wang et al.: CRISPR/Cas9-derived mutations both inhibit HIV-1 replication and accelerate viral escape http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2016.03.042 Cell Reports (@CellReports), published by Cell Press, is a weekly open-access journal that publishes high-quality papers across the entire life sciences spectrum.