Viral diversity is an obligate consideration in CRISPR/Cas9 designs for targeting the HIV reservoir.

ABSTRACT:

Background

RNA-guided CRISPR/Cas9 systems can be designed to mutate or excise the integrated HIV genome from latently infected cells and have therefore been proposed as a curative approach for HIV. However, most studies to date have focused on molecular clones with ideal target site recognition and do not account for target site variability observed within and between patients. For clinical success and broad applicability, guide RNA (gRNA) selection must account for circulating strain diversity and incorporate the within-host diversity of HIV.

Results

We identified a set of gRNAs targeting HIV LTR, gag, and pol using publicly available sequences for these genes and ranked gRNAs according to global conservation across HIV-1 group M and within subtypes A-C. By considering pair

SUBMITTER: Roychoudhury P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6040082 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature