Tre recombinase
The Tre recombinase is an enzyme, a recombinase that is capable of specifically the proviral DNA of the HIV virus from the DNA of human cells cut out.
The enzyme was produced by scientists at the HPIs for Experimental Virology and Immunology and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics by directed evolution. By the Cre recombinase - an enzyme which cuts out a DNA structure, the long terminal repeats (LTR) of HIV from similar - starting, the steps 169 mutation Tre recombinase has been obtained.
The recombinase was developed by Joachim Hauber, Ilona Hauber, Frank Buchholz and Indrani Sarkar. The research results were published on 29 June 2007 in the U.S. journal Science. So far, the enzyme was used only in a cell culture of primary cells infected with HIV and not on whole organisms; In addition, it is required for the complete removal of the viral DNA in all the cells for about three months. If and when using the Tre recombinase therapy to remove all HIV viruses is developed from human cells and thus HIV infection can be cured, is at present not yet in sight.