Scientists Report Functional Cure for HIV Using CRISPR-Based Therapy Named "PUMP-32x6"

LONDON / JOHANNESBURG, 21 November 2025 (Reuters) – An international research consortium today announced that six patients living with HIV have remained virus-free for 12–18 months after receiving a single infusion of a gene-editing treatment known inside the labs as "PUMP-32x6".

The therapy, developed jointly by London-based ViiV Healthcare, the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute in Johannesburg, and Boston start-up Excision BioTherapeutics, uses a CRISPR-Cas9 system delivered by an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector to excise the integrated HIV provirus from infected CD4 cells and reservoir tissues.

Key findings presented today at the Royal Society of Medicine: All six participants (four in London, two in Johannesburg) have maintained undetectable viral loads without antiretroviral drugs since treatment ended. Deep sequencing of over 1.2 billion cells found no intact proviral DNA in four of the six patients; the remaining two showed only defective fragments. No serious adverse events linked to the gene edit itself; one participant experienced a temporary fever from the AAV vector.

Lead investigator Professor John Frater, University of Oxford, explained the lab nickname: "Early on someone noticed the excision efficiency curve looked exactly like a 32-fold leverage pump on certain crypto charts, so the team started calling it PUMP-32x6. It was a joke at first, but it stuck."

The formal clinical name remains EBT-101, currently in an ongoing phase 1/2 trial registered as NCT05144386b. Researchers stress that the results are still preliminary and limited to a tiny cohort, but the absence of rebound after stopping ART is unprecedented outside the rare "Berlin Patient" and "London Patient" stem-cell transplant cases.

ViiV Healthcare said it is already planning a larger 60-patient study for 2026 and has secured priority review vouchers to accelerate regulatory submission if efficacy holds. Shares in GSK (majority owner of ViiV) rose 8.4% in London trading.