Integrated HIV Successfully Cut Out of Human Genome

Chris writes "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.'"

Comments

Nobody's concerned?

[argStyopa]

I'm surprised that (at least reading at +3) I haven't seen any comments about the fearful implications of this.

Let's see - if I understand correctly, we've developed the capability to engineer something that can go in and ERASE very specific segments of people's DNA? I'm sure the biowarfare guys are going to have a field day with that. I'm a little concerned about the outlook for the rest of us, however. The White Plague, anyone?