Clinical research
Being tested in people in registered clinical trials. Being in trials is not evidence that a treatment works or is safe.
What this trial is testing
The trial that started clinical gene editing. Years before CRISPR was a tool, patients with HIV had their own immune cells taken out, had a gene edited with zinc finger nucleases, and had them returned. It showed that a permanent, targeted edit could be made in a patient's cells and given back safely.
A Phase 1 study of autologous CD4 T cells with CCR5 disrupted by zinc finger nucleases in people with HIV. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, it reported that infusion was safe and that modified cells persisted, establishing the clinical feasibility of therapeutic genome editing.
Sources
- New England Journal of Medicine · 2014
Gene editing of CCR5 in autologous CD4 T cells of persons infected with HIV ↗
What a trial result does and does not mean
Early-phase results come from small numbers of participants and short follow-up. They can change with more people and more time, and a trial that is recruiting, active or even completed has not established that a treatment works. Enrolment criteria are strict; eligibility is decided by the trial site, never by a website.