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Scientists Have Cured HIV In Live Animals For The First Time

“Our eventual goal is a clinical trial in human patients.”

A cure for HIV is one step closer.

Researchers at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University have discovered a "promising cure" for HIV by eliminating the disease from infected human tissue in mice.

“The next stage would be to repeat the study in primates, a more suitable animal model where HIV infection induces disease, in order to further demonstrate the elimination of HIV-1 DNA," Kamel Khalili, co-senior study investigator, told Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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“Here, we demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of excising the HIV-1 provirus in three different animal models,” reported the researchers.

“To our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate the effective excision of HIV-1 proviral DNA from the host genome in pre-clinical animal models [using this method].”

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The next step would be to repeat the trial on an "animal model where HIV infection induces disease” like a primate.

“Our eventual goal is a clinical trial in human patients,” Khalili added.

The scientists noted that there were some "practical problems to overcome" but that removing the infected tissue from the mice is a “significant step towards carrying out clinical trials of the technique on humans."

The team of researchers hope to begin human trials as early as 2020.

h/t: Attitude

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