Chinese scientists modify genes to make humans HIV immune

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By Terry

China continues its push for world recognition as its scientists make yet another medical breakthrough that has the capacity to revolutionize the fight against HIV/AIDS. Recently, China’s scientists have been able to modify a gene in embryos that could make it possible for humans to become immune to the HIV virus. 

Researchers from the Guangzhou Medical University used a gene editing technique named CRISPR/Cas9 to replace the CCR5 gene in 26 human embryos with an HIV-resistant mutation. 

Of the 26 cases used in the experiment 4 produced the desired result, while the other 22 failed to do so. The research was reported in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics. 

"In this study, we demonstrated that the HIV-resistant mutation could be introduced into early human embryos through the CRISPR system," said Fan Yong, a researcher of the Guangzhou Medical University and an author of the paper. 

The CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technique employed by China’s scientists is a technique developed by US scientist Jennifer Doudna and French scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier in 2012, it is also known as the molecular Swiss army knife.

The technique has since been used by scientists all over the world to edit animals' genes in the laboratory.

Huang Junjiu, a biologist at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, was the first to apply the technique to humans. He reported his experiment on 71 human embryos in Nature Magazine in April 2015. 

The research has sparked a global debate regarding the ethics of such research even though the team used embryos from fertility clinics that could not have progressed to live births.

"Our experiments have gone through an ethical review at our research institute. Unlike the UK, currently China does not have a government authority that accepts and examines applications for this kind of research," said Fan.

Scientists started paying more attention to the technique used by Guangzhou Medical University after a 41-year-old man dubbed the "Berlin patient" who was on the verge of death, was cured of both AIDS and leukemia after a bone-marrow transplant from an HIV-resistant donor, making him the first person ever to be cured of AIDS.

Sources: ChinaDaily.com 

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