CMN Weekly (12 November 2021) - Your Weekly CRISPR Medicine News

Top Picks

• Proof-of-concept for CRISPR gRNA treatments for HIV-1 elimination has been demonstrated by researchers from the USA. Five gRNAs were designed to target cleavage of HIV-1 transcription factor tat exons and delivered to CD4+ T cells or monocytes. This led to up to 100% viral excision in infected cells and conferred protection against HIV-1-challenge or virus induction during latent infection. In another paper, Italian researchers show that HIV-1 provirus that has been excised with long terminal repeat (LTR)-targeting CRISPR/Cas9 persists for a few weeks and may rearrange in circular molecules.
• A study by American researchers has systematically investigated the possibility of selection of DNA damage induced cancer driver mutations during CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. The study finds that wild-type KRAS may hamper the growth of Cas9-edited cells, potentially conferring a selective advantage to pre-existing KRAS-mutant cells. In line with that, another study by Swedish researchers finds that CRISPR/Cas9-induced DNA damage enriches for mutations in a p53-linked interactome.