https://phys.org/news/2018-07-site-directed-rna-alternative-genetic-scissors.html

Cells copy the genetic information in their DNA – which is coded in a sequence of four different bases – into RNA molecules. The information becomes a set of instructions which is used to produce countless proteins in various compositions. The proteins in turn serve as building blocks in the cell and control its metabolism. "Our RNA editing methods are based on a protein construct which with the help of a guide RNA arrives at an RNA target molecule and converts certain bases. That makes it possible to rewrite the instructions for building proteins," Stafforst explains. RNA manipulation can be finely tuned and is reversible, making the method particularly attractive for treating diseases caused by mutations.

Stafforst points out that many disease-causing mutations might be accessible to the tool. He adds that the transient changes introduced in the RNA make it possible to intervene in signal pathways, e.g. associated with inflammation, whose permanent manipulation would have serious consequences. "We have already demonstrated the concurrent editing of multiple transcripts encoding signaling proteins," says Stafforst. The researchers showed that their method is twice as efficient as a recently published method for site-directed RNA editing, which is based on a variant of the CRISPR/Cas method.