In a first, researchers cut out HIV genes from animals infected with virus

Scientists at Temple University made their first successful attempt at eliminating HIV genes from the genomes of mice and rats infected with the virus, reported TIME magazine.

The lead scientist of this research, Kamel Khalili, director of the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at Temple University, with his team engineered mice and rats to integrate specific HIV genes with all the other possible cells of their body.

Later, they designed a pair of molecular scissors using a gene-editing technique called CRISPR to cut out those viral genes. The peculiarity of CRISPR is that it precisely snips out the viral genes leaving the animals' own DNA unharmed.

Khalili in the research studied CRISPR's ability to eliminate HIV from the animals. Conclusion implied that it had eliminated HIV from more than 50%of the infected cells of each type. He informed TIME that this technology is much less complicated than the previous ones, like bone marrow transplant and can be accessible to the patients of under-developed countries with improper health facilities. 

Khalili thinks that this technique is a step ahead towards finding a cure to HIV and treating the people infected by it. The study is still to find answers to whether it will have side effects when used on human DNA. 

Khalili says: "The first step is to permanently inactivate those viruses incorporated in cells... If we can do that, and reach that level, then we may be able to functionally cure individuals or have a sterilizing cure.”

Watch TIME's video on gene-editing technique CRISPR: