Continuity
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 1716
Location: Municipal Flat Block 18A, Linear North
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 Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:21 am Post subject: Integrated HIV Successfully Cut Out of Human Genome |
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| Quote: | | German scientists have succeeded in snipping HIV out of human cells after it has integrated itself into a patient's DNA. The procedure is a breakthrough in bio-technology and fuels hope of a cure for AIDS. The group is only cautiously optimistic, though, as treating a full-on infection would be substantially different than succeeding in a controlled lab environment. 'Researchers ... began with the bacterial enzyme Cre recombinase, which exchanges any two pieces of DNA flanked on either end by a certain pattern of nucleotides (DNA subunits) known as loxP. HIV does not naturally contain loxP sites, so the team created a hybrid of the two DNA molecules, which they used to select a series of mutated Cre enzymes that were increasingly able to recognize the combined DNA. The final enzyme, Tre, removed all traces of HIV from cultured human cervical cells after about three months, the researchers report online today in Science. |
Article here: SciAm Article
Another one: PhysOrg Article
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