According to ZME Science, s group of scientists in Germany have managed to eradicate HIV in mice and in some human patients using a gene splicing enzyme. If the technique can be made to reliably work in humans, it would prove to be the long sought after cure for HIV/AIDS.

When the HIV/AIDS epidemic first began in the early 1980s, contracting the disease proved to be a sentence to a particularly grisly death. The disease was transmitted through the transfer of bodily fluids. HIV/AIDS particularly hit gay men in the developed world, though it is more wide spread in the developing world, particularly Africa.

By the 1990s an antiretroviral therapy was developed that not so much cured the disease as manage it. The therapy is expensive and has side effects, but it allows people with HIV/AIDS to love more or less normal, productive lives.

The German scientists have developed the gene splicing enzyme called Brec1 through a technique called directed evolution, reproducing on the cellular level what experts in animal husbandry do with livestock, slowly subjecting proteins to mutations, selecting those closest to the qualities that are being looked for. The result is an enzyme that cuts out the HIV genetic material, effectively eradicating the disease.

The caveat about the treatment is that it destroys HIV by altering the genetic code of the person suffering from the disease.

Some people may find the concept disturbing, since the genetic code determines what we are. Still, if the Brec1 can be proven to remove HIV and nothing else, it will become a way to cure the condition that has taken millions of lives and has blighted the existence of many millions more.

The next step for the scientists in Germany will be to conduct extensive human clinical trials.

If the therapy proves to be safe and effective, it could be available in a clinical setting in a few years.

A parting question for the gentle reader arises. If Bec1 can snip out “bad” genetic material, leaving the rest untouched, can a similar enzyme be developed to deal with other genetic abnormalities?

What are the ethical questions surrounding a technique that alters the genetic code, even to cure diseases?