

Indian doctor develops enzyme that can destroy HIV - kashif
http://ibnlive.com/news/indian-doc-develops-enzyme-that-can-destroy-hiv/48654-17.html

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ingenium
It would be a enormous breakthrough if this works as they say. One possibility
is to use a modified lenivirus (such as HIV itself) to insert the gene for
this enzyme. The promoter for this gene may even be able to be designed in
such a way that HIV infection triggers the gene to become active, which would
in turn excise the HIV from the genome. Also tied to the promoter could be a
gene for a transmembrane protein or internal signaling molecule to trigger the
cell to be destroyed and prevent the already produced HIV from being released.

A safer alternative to the lenitvirus approach would be to use a nanoparticle
encapsulating the DNA for the gene and the required enzymes to integrate it
into the genome (or even leave it as a plasmid. I'm not sure though if human
cells will express plasmid vectors, though I know some eukaryotic cells do).
This approach has been successful selectively targeting and delivering drugs
(one paper used alpha particles) into cancer cells.

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ingenium
The paper is not publicly available, but it has conveniently appeared on
Scribd. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/296901/HIV1-Proviral-DNA-
Excision-...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/296901/HIV1-Proviral-DNA-Excision-
Using-an-Evolved-Recombinase)

