Excision’s CRISPR based HIV treatment shows promise in preclinical studies

Excision BioTherapeutics has announced positive results of preclinical studies of EBT-101, based on CRISPR, for the treatment of HIV. The results are to be presented at the 25th meeting of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).

EBT-101 is a therapeutic agent, which is based on the CRISPR method of gene editing. Think of CRISPR as genetic scissors which are able to remove specific sequences without damaging those around them.

The intention is ‘cure’ a person’s HIV infection with a single injection. Preclinical trials, on mice, have shown that EBT-101 “provides reliable editing” of HIV proviral DNA without visible side effects.

"We developed EBT-101 to minimise virus elusiveness and non-target effects by cutting three areas specific to the HIV genome. Latent viral reservoirs were eliminated on many models, which led to a complete cure of mice of HIV," said Dr. Thomas Cradick, Chief Researcher at Excision.