CRISPR Cas9 is a revolutionary new gene editing tool, and researchers have now been able to use it to remove HIV from living animals!
In case you haven't heard about CRISPR yet, I've already written a complete post about it.
Here is a quote from my article that explains briefly what CRISPR is:
(...) With this new, revolutionary technology, you would be able to specifically change and edit sequences of your DNA. You could completely delete certain genes from a cell, or simply alter the amounts of it, or create a mutation inside a gene by changing the base pairs (tiny pieces of DNA). This process is called genetic engineering.
The method is still very young, but the results and progress made within the last few months have been fascinating!
Last september, german scientists used CRISPR to remove cancer mutations in animals, and only a few months later Chinese researchers first experimented with the tool on a human being.
A few days ago, a new research from scientists of the University of Pittsburgh was published: they tested CRISPR on mice - and were able to increase survival rates and shrink tumors without attacking healthy cells.
They were transplanting human prostate- and liver-cancer cells into mice, and then used CRISPR to try to remove them.
Their experiment targeted so-called "Fusion Genes", a mutation that appears whenever two distinct genes are combined into a single hybrid, which often leads to cancer.
These fusion genes are unique, so CRISPR can identify them quite easily and insert cells that kill cancer instead. And all of that without harming healthy cells, which is something that's not the case in chemotherapy.
The results of the experiment were incredible: the tumors shrunk immensely (some up to 30%) and didn't spread any further, and all of the test animals survived.
In the control group on the other hand, the tumors spread further, grew 40 times larger and none of the test subjects survived.
So this is a revolutionary success for CRISPR, rising the survival rate from 0 to 100% !
“This is the first time that gene editing has been used to specifically target cancer fusion genes. It is really exciting because it lays the groundwork for what could become a totally new approach to treating cancer. Other types of cancer treatments target the foot soldiers of the army. Our approach is to target the command center, so there is no chance for the enemy’s soldiers to regroup in the battlefield for a comeback.”-Jian-Hua Luo, lead author
Of course, this was only an experiment in mice, and we're still a long way from curing humans from HIV with CRISPR.
But still, it shows the enormous potential of the CRISPR gene editing method - and if we're already seeing results like these after only a few years of research, what will we be able to achieve in a few decades?
Paul Knopefler, a stem cell biologist at University of California Davis, stated: "In actual human patients there’s no way that a Crispr gene therapy will ever get 100 percent of HIV. How highly efficient will be ‘efficient enough’ to make a clinically meaningful impact?”
But Kamel Khalili, another author of the paper, believes strongly in his work - and even thinks that this might be the cure they have been searching for for years and years:
"“I strongly believe in the gene editing strategy, and with my 30 years in HIV research, I think this is the one that is going to take us to the end.”-Kamel Khalili, author of the paper
We will see how experiments with CRISPR will turn out in the future - there is definitely a lot of potential in this revolutionary tool, and it might just change the way we think about diseases and our own genes!
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
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© Sirwinchester
A wild thought just popped into my head, it could be completely rediculous:
Is DNA the Ultimate Blockchain?
Just thinking about how much information is stored in DNA.
In a single human genome? About 1.5 gigabytes of information:
http://bitesizebio.com/8378/how-much-information-is-stored-in-the-human-genome/
Link: The Bitcoin blockchain/DNA metaphor: The Bitcoin network is a bit like biological life, without the Sex
Thanks! I did not see that post.
Have a great weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
That's such a clever analogy - totally fitting!
Congratulations @sirwinchester!
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following category:
Great Post, thank you, @sirwinchester.
This seems like it could be giant leap forwards. It would be good to see the powers that be take a step towards altering the timespan between this research and the development of treatment for humans - Africa is still crippled and there seems to be a serious hope here.
Resteemed
Namaste.
Yes, I think we will hear a lot more about CRISPR in the future. There are so many different ways to use this technology, and I'm sure we'll start benefiting from it within the next few years!
Interesting post. Technology in medicine is really making itself known.
Yes exactly! It's so amazing to see how those two go together, and how the developments are going further and further.
Great Post, thank for share!
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
This is such an amazing technique. Sometimes I do miss working as a scientist... but the freedom of travel (and a bit more free time) is worth it!
Agreed. It may exciting but probably also very stressful. And traveling and enjoying life is worth more than a well-paid job!
True that!
It's hard to overstate just how revolutionary CRISPR is going to be for humanity.
With technology like this, the really crucial problems now are economic (ie. let's try to avoid cyberpunk dystopia where we have amazing technology but it only benefits the wealthy).
Thank you very much for this article, @sirwinchester. I really hope that this will get out of the lab ASAP.
Yes I hope so too. If this could be used on humans successfully, millions of lives could be saved!
I don't understand what you are saying here.
Good news
Fascinating. What a Pandora's box this might open, eh?
Thanks for the research. We've promoted to our channels. And thank you for using the #steemnews tag!
I'm new here at Steemit. I really like how you provided image and source links in order below your article, very nice. 😊
Love your CRISPR articles - have some CRISPR articles myself. Check them out if you want to. Some more are about to come. This stuff is so exciting
Congratulations to this article! Thanks for sharing.