CRISPR injected into the blood treats a genetic disease for first time

CRISPR injected into the blood treats a genetic disease for first time

3 years ago
Anonymous $drS9DEX_Sj

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/crispr-injected-blood-treats-genetic-disease-first-time

A new CRISPR-based treatment for a rare, deadly liver disease depends on an injection containing both a messenger RNA encoding a DNA-cutting enzyme (white) and another RNA (blue) that guides it to a specific gene sequence (green).

The gene editor CRISPR excels at fixing disease mutations in lab-grown cells. But using CRISPR to treat most people with genetic disorders requires clearing an enormous hurdle: getting the molecular scissors into the body and having it slice DNA in the tissues where it’s needed. Now, in a medical first, researchers have injected a CRISPR drug into the blood of people born with a disease that causes fatal nerve and heart disease and shown that in three of them it nearly shut off production of toxic protein by their livers.