Why isn't it possible to cure HIV infection via gene therapy?
Gene therapy is a process for curing genetic disorders that occur due to inheritance of a mutated gene (disfunctional gene) by replacing defective gene (using most commonly retroviral vectors)
2 Responses
Science Geek
19 Feb 2010
Joe T
19 Feb 2010
Your DNA is modified to contain all the ugly things that cause HIV/AIDS. Hence, as your cells divide, so does the piece of code that’s in your gene, so it just replicates along with the rest of the normal DNA.
That being said, there is a project underway right now to ‘snip’ out the offending part of the DNA and splice it back together. How far along it’s gotten though, I’m not sure, but it sounded impressive at the time.
Because the cause of HIV is not a defective gene.