On April 10, Beijing time, according to foreign media reports, scientists at Stanford University in the United States are actively exploring whether gene editing technology can be used to fight epidemic diseases, but so far, they have only solved a small part of the mystery. The bioengineering department of this university conducted an experiment, and they used gene manipulation Crispr technology to fight against novel coronavirus.
At present, we may be entering an era of "new weapons" based on Crispr technology, which is used to fight deadly viruses such as influenza and coronavirus. The researchers pointed out that Pac-Man technology may be a rapidly implemented pan-coronavirus strategy to deal with the emerging epidemic virus strains.
Stanley Lab has mastered the core technology of Crispr, interfering with cancer cells and treating diseases. It uses PAC-MAN to attack virus cells through "guided Crispr torpedo". This method can destroy the composition of virus genes, penetrate human cells, and then use the cellular mechanism to replicate itself.
In this special experiment, the Crispr technology system of the laboratory was used to search and destroy COVID-19, and put it into the solution containing the inert synthetic fragment of the virus. Like all Crispr technical systems, the system consists of two parts: an enzyme and a "targeted RNA". RNA guided an enzyme named "Cas- 13d" to attach to a specific site of COVID-19 genome, and then made a series of cleavages. You can think of Crispr as a pair of scissors, and then just remove COVID-19.
The results show that the Crispr therapy targeting COVID-19 can reduce the number of viruses by 90%. The researchers believe that if the program can be effectively implemented, the sterilization rate will be enough to prevent people from being infected with COVID-19 virus.
Objectively speaking, the latest research report of Stanford University's research team is a blueprint or proof of concept, but there are some important unknown factors in this project, including that they have not tested Pac-Man on actual COVID-19 patients. They haven't developed a system for implanting human cells. Even if this method is effective, there is still a long way to go to achieve clinical trials. Frankly speaking, there is no possibility that this method will be tested on humans in the next 4-6 months. This means that if we try to reach the moon and return safely, we need to build a space rocket in advance and reach the escape speed.
Laurie Zorros, a senior consultant in social ethics at the University of Chicago in the United States, said: "In the history of human development, every major scientific breakthrough is beyond the technology at that time, such as/kloc-isolation and quarantine technology developed in the 3rd century,/kloc-medical innovation in the 7th century, and/kloc-vaccination technology in the 8th century. Crispr is a brand-new technology that has not been confirmed in human diseases, but it should be able to play a role, which is logical. "
The gene editing ability of Crispr technology will be used to treat diseases more and more, initially only for hereditary diseases, but in recent years it has been used to treat infectious diseases, including novel coronavirus, which is currently raging all over the world. The Crispr technical scheme for the real prevention or treatment of COVID-19 is also applied to the treatment of influenza and other infectious viruses. From 2065438 to 2008, the Advanced Research Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense began a four-year "preparatory program", and according to the proposed program, human patients were treated by gene method, resulting in new medical countermeasures. It is reported that Stanley Qi Laboratory is one of the research groups engaged in Crispr scheme design. April 20 19, they began to study a flu treatment method based on Crispr technology. With the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of this year, researchers in this laboratory noticed this, and in late June of 19, they turned their research focus to viruses that changed people's lifestyles.
Dealing with this particular virus is a great challenge. COVID-19 has 30,000 nucleotides, but Crispr technology can only cut RNA in 22 nucleotide regions. In order to locate the best attack location, a lot of bioinformatics calculations and experiments are needed.
The researchers said that this treatment itself is a double gene attack, which will directly affect the targeted virus. The first function is to reduce the concentration of virus genome in human cells, and the second function is to prevent the generation of virus protein, thus preventing the virus from replicating itself and destroying the human defense system.
So far, the biggest problem is that the researchers didn't really use novel coronavirus in the experiment, because they couldn't get samples of the virus and didn't get government authorization. Stanley Qi's laboratory has created a synthetic, non-replicating virus, which has the gene expression characteristics of COVID-19 and is used to replace the real COVID-19.
The research team of Stanford University believes that even if the real COVID-19 has not been tested, their research results are very important. The experimental results show that we can intervene in some areas of the virus, which will not only stay in the conceptual stage, but will eventually form a treatment plan.
But other researchers said that in order to prove that humans can destroy COVID-19, it is necessary to use real virus samples for experiments. Another problem is that there is no virus delivery system based on Crispr. One of the persistent problems in Crispr medical plan is how to treat suitable cells. The lung is the target of COVID-19's attack, and it is a particularly difficult battlefield-drugs are relatively difficult to enter, and it is full of mucus, which may interfere with targeted therapy.
The researchers said that although there are many potential treatment options, PAC-MAN technology has not been found to cause viral RNA. Maybe someone has found a solution to this problem, and they may have an efficient drug delivery method.
Professor Santangelo led a research team of Georgia Institute of Technology to establish cooperative relations with many universities. They think that nebulizer therapy can be used, which is an atomized inhalation device, and patients can breathe based on Crispr technology. At present, they are testing the combination therapy of sprayer /Crispr on mice.
Finally, the research report pointed out that using Crispr technology as a "preventive strategy" to treat COVID-19 means that this therapy can keep uninfected people away from the virus, but Crispr is a relatively new medical technology, and the human trial of Crispr approved by the US Drug Administration has only been conducted three times in the United States. Although this treatment was not found to be harmful to the health of patients, the researchers were very cautious. Early experiments of introducing transgenic cells into human body led to malignant inflammation, and in some cases, even led to the death of patients. This is one of the urgent problems to be solved. If your immune system doesn't accept this protein, it may be used as a treatment to better balance risks and rewards.
Finally, like any new treatment, Crispr's treatment to prevent virus infection still needs to be tested on animals and humans, and then it will pass the strict review procedure of FDA.
Nevertheless, this paper will be regarded as a milestone one day. The ultimate hope of the technical system based on Crispr is that once the genetic target of the new virus is determined, changing the previous treatment method is a simpler process and can be realized quickly. Maybe in the future, our system will not know what kind of virus to deal with. All you have to do is change a simple part, and then it can really resist this new virus, but at present, any new use of this treatment still needs FDA approval. This latest research shows that maybe when the next epidemic virus comes, we will have more weapons to deal with it than the current vaccines and drugs.
For more information about "new weapons: Crispr technology will become COVID-19's" nemesis ",please continue to pay attention to the column of deep space science and technology information, and deep space Bian Xiao will continue to update more science and technology news for you.
This article Source: Deep Space Game Editor: Heart of the Anonymous King 2 Click on the demo.