CRISPR-Cas Based Treatment for Latent Viral Infections

Researchers in Prof. Stephen Quake's laboratory have developed a CRISPER-Cas-based targeted endonuclease system designed to treat latent viral infections by attacking the viral genome. Latent viral infections present a continuous risk to an infected patient, but are difficult to treat with traditional therapeutics because extremely low amounts of protein are expressed by the dormant genome. This new endonuclease system uses viral-specific guide RNAs to treat an infection by destroying one of the remaining viral targets - the viral genome itself. This technology can be adapted with a range of specific guide RNAs and/or delivery methods which could lead to a generalized approach for curing latent viral infections (such as herpesviridae and human papillomavirus).

Stage of Research
The inventors have demonstrated this system in cells of patients with Burkitt's lymphoma that were infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV or human herpesvirus 4). The CRISPR/Cas9 system suppressed virally induced cell proliferation, restored the apoptosis pathway in the cells and completely cleared EBV from ~25% of the cells with no toxic side-effects to noninfected cells.