Fighting viruses with viruses? ‘Gene drive’ offers new strategy to beat infections

If your immune system or drugs can’t stop a viral infection, why not pit a virus against itself? That’s the provocative idea several labs are pursuing. They are studying whether deliberately introducing engineered viruses into people infected with their natural relatives can “drive” a foreign gene into those viruses that ultimately wipes out an infection. No lab has knocked down an infection in animals this way yet, but a group has now shown it’s theoretically possible. These so-called gene drives harness the genome editor CRISPR to perform genetic surgery that speeds the spread of a gene through progeny. So far, scientists have received the most attention for adding gene drives to animals such as rodents and mosquitoes to control their numbers. But in a preprint last week , the team reported a similar feat with herpesvirus-1 (HSV-1). When both engineered and unmodified herpesviruses were inoculated into mice, the gene drive converted up to 90% of the viruses—possibly enough to prevent an HSV-1 infection from causing symptoms such as painful cold sores. A second group has succeeded in putting gene drives into HSV-1 that is growing in infected cells in lab dishes. The viral gene drive work is a long way from curing an infected person. No one knows, for example, what kind of genetic modification the drive should propagate to drive down an infection. But other scientists see its potential. The new studies are “compelling,” says Rebecca Shapi...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research