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smurfettekcmo t1_irejk2s wrote

I happy to learn this research is taking place. It was one of my thoughts first learning of CRISPR. Why can’t we just use it to chop up viruses like Pac-Man? This is step further cutting out the imbedded sequences. I just hope the region the target is very specific to HIV. I know they mention it’s a well conserved region of HIV but with our DNA containing so much viral DNA already could it make edits in unintended regions?

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Rguy315 t1_irekn1v wrote

I guess that's the billion dollar question and what they're hoping to figure out with human trials.

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eilertokyo t1_irgwwsu wrote

It’s fairly well understood. CRISPR cuts specific sequences of DNA out. If you’re too precise you won’t remove all the HIV. If you’re not precise enough you’ll cut out all kinds of other spots in the DNA and potentially cause problems down the line. A lot of experimental treatments like this wind up with patients developing leukemia or something else down the line. They state 12 weeks but it would be years before they can say this is safe.

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IceColdPorkSoda t1_irepbye wrote

This is what animal and clinical trials are for. To answer many of the questions you’re asking right now.

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Stewy_434 t1_irf2ll6 wrote

Restriction enzymes, or restriction endonucleases, or base pair cutters, cut doubled-stranded DNA by disrupting the phosphodiester bond that joins adjacent nucleotides. It is not random though.

Like other enzymes, restriction enzymes show specificity for certain substrates. For these enzymes, the substrate is a sequence of base pairs in the DNA strands. They bind to, recognize, and cut (digest) DNA within specific sequences, called restriction sites, and these sites must be palindromic readings from the separate strands. You can have 4, 6, or 8 (there are others) base pair cutters. If the sequence is shorter (say a 4 base pair cutter), it is more likely to be repeated than an 8-base pair cutter.

The biochemistry behind it is ridiculous and goes into why enzymes cut at the free ends of DNA molecules, while restriction enzymes cut inside the DNA strands.

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smurfettekcmo t1_irftg4g wrote

RE are very different tech than CRISPR. CRISPR is much more specific to a certain seq I believe. RE sites are pretty specific but you tend to have multiple of each depending on the length of sequence. I left the molecular lab before CRISPR but have used RE digestion a lot personally when I was still in the lab.

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slagwa t1_irgxuzh wrote

What are the chances that they get every cell containing a segment of HIV?

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smurfettekcmo t1_irh3mg7 wrote

From the other attempts described in the article that is definitely a huge hurdle.

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