Sangamo gets HIV mention

https://www.statnews.com/2016/10/25/crispr-identifies-hiv-genes/

CRISPR identifies genes that might be targeted to hobble HIV infection

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The hope is that using genome editing to change one or more such genes in T cells will prevent or vanquish AIDS. Current therapies keep infections at bay but do not eliminate the virus from a patient’s immune system. Patients must therefore take antiretroviral drugs for the rest of their lives. In its clinical trials of editing the CCR5 gene, Sangamo Biosciences has found ⁷that patients’ viral load fell and, in some cases, stayed low even without HIV/AIDS drugs; updated results are expected in 2017, said company spokesperson Elizabeth Wolffe.

Whether editing genes other than CCR5 might help patients is unknown, said Michael Holmes, Sangamo’s vice president of research. The UCSF study did “a good job” of using CRISPR to identify additional potential HIV targets, he said, but “CCR5 and CXCR [another gene] still seem to be the best targets, which is not to say that additional ones might not be useful.”

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