Human trials are about to begin on a potentially groundbreaking HIV treatment that is being hailed as a possible “cure” for the virus.
According to a press release from Excision Biotherapeutics, a biotech company, America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the treatment’s progression to Phase I/II human trials.
Excision’s potential cure is known as EBT-101 and is being developed in partnership with researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia.
EBT-101 cuts numerous pieces of the HIV genome in a bid to make it unable to mutate inside the body.
Speaking to Fierce Biotech, Excision’s CEO Daniel Dornbusch said: “If you just make a single cut, the virus can mutate around it. We make multiple cuts to deactivate the viral genome.”
The Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR gene-editing technology is at the core of a lot of the company’s work and allows for the modification of human DNA.
According to Excision, EBT-101 could “functionally cure” humans living with HIV, as preliminary research has shown its effectiveness at removing HIV proviral DNA – a latent form of the virus that replicates along with human cells in the body.
Dornbusch explained to Philadelphia magazine that the term “functional cure” means small amounts of HIV could remain in the body, but not at a level that would make the affected person test positive for the virus.
He added: “Sterilizing cures are not necessary, as the goal of the therapy will be for individuals to remain HIV negative by RNA testing, maintain normal levels of immune cells, and cease taking antiretroviral treatment — achieving a functional cure.”
The CEO went on to explain that EBT-101’s goal is to be a one-time treatment that would eradicate a patients’ need for antiretroviral therapies (ART).
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