[Music] remarkable scientists may have made a significant breakthrough in the fight against HIV and AIDS researchers were able to eliminate HIV from infected cells with Gene editing technology what does that mean let's bring in Dr Jonathan stoy he's a virus expert at the Francis Crick Institute in London uh well so what does this mean Jonathan uh Gene editing what is it and and how did it work in this case or apparently work what needs to be done when trying to treat an HIV infection is to remov
e the HIV proviruses from the cells of infected individuals so this crisper cast technine technique is designed to just do just that uh the studies so far have been done on cells in culture uh we haven't yet got any real experience with animals though that's those studies are beginning so I'm curious about I mean it sounds like sci-fi it and and science often does how significant are these findings and what could it be what could it mean not only for HIV and AIDS patients but is this a kind of t
echnology that can be used for other uh potentially deadly uh diseases yes it can be used for other potentially diseases at the moment uh various organizations are targeting CLE cell anemia as well as HIV as a way of trying to treat the disease and how far away are we from this becoming a broadly available treatment what are the the obstacles or the hurdles between now and that reality being with us I think it's it's a distant goal um we still we can treat a certain number of we can remove a cer
tain number of these proviruses from cells but there are a lot of unknowns about the reservoir that remains in HIV infected individuals the the viruses that persist will be very hard to get rid of and the problem is that we've got got to get rid of them all otherwise the virus May reappear and reinfect the person all right Dr Jonathan Stow a virus expert at the Francis criek Institute in London with the Wonder of this breakthrough and also the obstacles still that need to be overcome thank you v
ery much thank you
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