Most HIV treatments center around suppressing the virus. For example, many antivirals used in treatment interfere with viral reproduction. These people are never cured, because part of what HIV does is it inserts itself into the DNA of the infected individual's cells.

The technique proposed in this article would be revolutionary because it suggests that we may eventually be able to use CRISPR to selectively cut that HIV DNA out of infected cells, leading to a permanent cure, if 100% eradication of HIV DNA can be achieved. Unfortunately, doing it in a petri dish is much different than doing it in vivo, particularly with 100% eradication.