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E. coli, the same family of bacteria that lives in all of our large bowels and sometimes leads to serious infections, can be genetically transformed to create a vaccine against the dreaded HIV virus that causes AIDS.  Swedish microbiologists have successfully utilized the CRISPR-cas9 editing technique to add an HIV genetic sequence to the genome of a benign E. coli species that creates HIV antigens on that bacteria’s surface.  

This HIV-E. coli bacterium was shown to be antigenic by reacting it with known human anti-HIV antibodies.  Most importantly, these would be vaccine bacteria could be grown in large quantities and still retain their antigenicity. 

Once these these HIV-bacteria are shown to induce anti-HIV antibodies in experimental animals and then in humans, they will become the basis for a pill-form HIV vaccine lives in the bowels and continuously triggers the production of HIV-killing antibodies.  Let’s hope that happens….. someday soon.

https://microbialcellfactories.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12934-024-02347-8

#ecoli #HIV #vaccine #antibodies #geneediting #crisprcas9