A Potential One-Dose Treatment to 'Functionally Cure' HIV Will Be Tested in Human Trials

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A potential treatmentfor HIVthat would “functionally cure” the virus will soon begin human trials.

In September, the Food and Drug Administration granted Excision Biotherapeutics approval to start testing their HIV treatment, known as EBT-101, in volunteers with HIV. The technology, which was discovered at Temple University in Philadelphia, uses gene editing to cut out pieces of human DNA, which researchers hope will work on the HIV genome to stop it from mutating in the body.

“If you just make a single cut, the virus can mutate around it,” Excision CEO Daniel Dornbusch explained toFierce Biotech.“We make multiple cuts to deactivate the viral genome.”

Researchers have already found EBT-101 to be effective in cutting out portions of the HIV genome in prior trials in non-human primates and lab-isolated human cells.

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They hope that the first human trial will establish that the treatment is safe and effective.

“The goal, of course, is to find the first therapeutic to create functional cures for HIV,” Dornbusch toldPhiladelphia, adding that “the term ‘functional cure’ is an important distinction, as there will be no way to determine if EBT-101 will remove every viral genome from an individual, which is called a ‘sterilizing cure.’ "

source: people.com