Gene editing technology CRISPR devises a way to treat the new corona
As a new treatment for the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), a method has been devised to stop the replication of the virus using the gene editing technology 'CRISPR'. Research is in its infancy, but researchers have announced that it will also work against mutant strains.
Reprogrammed CRISPR-Cas13b suppresses SARS-CoV-2 replication and circumvents its mutational escape through mismatch tolerance | Nature Communications
CRISPR stops coronavirus replication in human cells | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/crispr-block-coronavirus-replication-treatment.html
The gene variant technology 'CRISPR / Cas9' won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 as an epoch-making method that can significantly reduce the cost and time required for gene editing. This technology uses an enzyme called Cas9 to cleave target DNA, but subsequent research has also revealed that single-stranded RNA can be cleaved with enzymes such as 'Cas12a' and 'Cas13.'
You can read what kind of technology CRISPR / Cas9 is and what is amazing from the following article.
A movie that shows what the gene editing technology 'CRISPR' is, and what will happen to the future of humankind? --GIGAZINE
A new study, published at Nature Communications on July 13, 2021, devised a method to 'break the target RNA strand' using an enzyme called Cas13b. Since SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is an RNA virus, the research team designed CRISPR / Cas13b to target specific sites in the RNA of SARS-CoV-2.
According to a statement from the Peter McCallum Cancer Center involved in the study, binding of the Cas13b enzyme to RNA destroys the part required for SARS-CoV-2 replication. 'When a virus is recognized, the CRISPR enzyme chops the virus,' explains Sharon Lewin of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infectious Immunology, the lead author of the paper. This method is also believed to be effective for a wide range of mutant strains, including the SARS-CoV-2 alpha strain (B.1.1.7).
Vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are distributed for COVID-19, but there are concerns that the virus may evolve to escape the effects of the vaccine once the vaccine becomes widespread. For this reason, it is desired to develop not only vaccines but also therapeutic agents to be taken after the diagnosis of COVID-19, and an approach to RNA using CRISPR / Cas13b can be one method.
However, the new approach using CRISPR / Cas13b is still in the early stages of research. Researchers plan to conduct animal studies and clinical trials in the future, but it is expected that it will take years for the drug to be completed and marketed.
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in Science, Posted by darkhorse_log