Can CRISPR Be An Exciting New Weapon Against Cancer?
Special report by guest writer Sally Fox
Deep within the exciting new world of genetic research into human health is a strange acronym known as CRISPR, a tool that some researchers believe may prove to be a powerful system for attacking cancer cells, the AIDS virus and perhaps an unlimited number of hereditary diseases, and chronic health conditions of the human body.
Some researchers say CRISPR technology may be stirring a revolution in medical research. They say it is changing not only the way basic research is conducted, but also the way they now think about treating disease. Critics, however, say the use of CRISPR, which has only been used in experiments on lab mice, has yet to be proven as an agent for curing human immune system ailments.
For the record, CRISPR stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.” This name refers to the unique organization of short, partially palindromic repeated DNA sequences found in the genomes of bacteria and other microorganisms.
While we perceive bacteria as tiny organisms that play various roles in maintaining and attacking the health of the body, viruses are even smaller infectious agents that not only make us ill, but they attack bacterial cells. Amazingly the bacterial cell contains its own immune system, which researchers are now identifying as CRISPR. Its role is to destroy the genome of the invading virus. CRISPR also is found to destroy the genetic material within the attacking virus so it cannot replicate. Consequently CRISPR serves to protect bacteria from ongoing viral infection.
Researchers have found that CRISPR genes play an integral role in our bacterial defense system, and form the basis of a new headline-gaining genome editing technology which is known as CRISPR/Cas9, having taken its name from the gene itself. CRISPR gene editing allows permanent modification of genes within organisms, and supporters of the technology believe the applications for its usage are almost limitless.
In the simplest possible terms, CRISPR works like a cut and paste scissors and glue stick solution at a DNA level. CRISPR is an important and ground breaking development in the world of DNA modification, because it not only makes the process more precise it also makes it less costly.
CRISPR gene modification technologies, however, are also considered to be very controversial. According to a report published in Forbes Magazine, CRISPR can lead to unexpected unwanted gene modifications, and the technology cannot yet be predicted and controlled well enough to be applied to humankind. The latest research found hundreds of mutations in experimental mice that weren't supposed to be there: as well as the gene mutations they were targeting, other mutations were occurring of their own accord. This shock result was published widely in the scientific world because it contradicted earlier studies that lead to a rise in the interest in CRISPR and purported that CRISPR did not in fact cause any additional, untargeted mutations.
This latest finding means that CRISPR technology appears to temporarily be in limbo. Yet researchers believe CRISPR still has the potential to improve and enrich the lives of millions. While the research continues, some critics believe it will be decades before CRISPR technology has been improved and stabilized enough to be moved beyond the lab and applied to humans.
There are three primary areas where scientists hope that CRISPR can be applied to enrich human wellbeing. These are in health diagnostics, curing hereditary diseases, and fighting cancer.
In the United States alone, an incredible 600,000 people each year will lose their lives to cancer. This figure duplicates significantly when looking at cancer rates from the rest of the world. One of the main attack paths cancer chooses is to attack T cells. Scientists are now assessing whether they can reprogram T- cells to resist, and ultimately destroy the cancer that is working so hard to destroy them.
There are more than 10,000 hereditary health conditions that are the direct result of the modification of one single gene, and it is single gene mutations that CRISPR is most suited to ‘curing’. While pain management medication and such techniques as physiotherapy are often sited as cost-effective solutions to chronic and hereditary conditions, CRISPR poses an affordable long term solution that could cure hundreds of thousands of patients without any additional expense. Its affordability is what makes CRISPR look so appealing to many healthcare providers.
Finally, CRISPR poses exciting possibilities in health diagnostics: before an illness can be cured it needs to be diagnosed and CRISPR technology can be used to analyze blood and saliva to diagnose the patient’s specific ailment quickly and as cheaply as possible. This is an exciting proposition for medical professions, who could well use this technology to diagnose conditions that might otherwise be missed, and to save lives.
The ethical dilemma that gene modification poses on a state level means that while these theoretical advances are incredible, at a policy level, it is difficult to see if and when they will be implemented. But the prospect remains exciting, and the potential human implications could be truly lifesaving.
Special report by guest writer Sally Fox
Deep within the exciting new world of genetic research into human health is a strange acronym known as CRISPR, a tool that some researchers believe may prove to be a powerful system for attacking cancer cells, the AIDS virus and perhaps an unlimited number of hereditary diseases, and chronic health conditions of the human body.
Some researchers say CRISPR technology may be stirring a revolution in medical research. They say it is changing not only the way basic research is conducted, but also the way they now think about treating disease. Critics, however, say the use of CRISPR, which has only been used in experiments on lab mice, has yet to be proven as an agent for curing human immune system ailments.
For the record, CRISPR stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.” This name refers to the unique organization of short, partially palindromic repeated DNA sequences found in the genomes of bacteria and other microorganisms.
While we perceive bacteria as tiny organisms that play various roles in maintaining and attacking the health of the body, viruses are even smaller infectious agents that not only make us ill, but they attack bacterial cells. Amazingly the bacterial cell contains its own immune system, which researchers are now identifying as CRISPR. Its role is to destroy the genome of the invading virus. CRISPR also is found to destroy the genetic material within the attacking virus so it cannot replicate. Consequently CRISPR serves to protect bacteria from ongoing viral infection.
Researchers have found that CRISPR genes play an integral role in our bacterial defense system, and form the basis of a new headline-gaining genome editing technology which is known as CRISPR/Cas9, having taken its name from the gene itself. CRISPR gene editing allows permanent modification of genes within organisms, and supporters of the technology believe the applications for its usage are almost limitless.
In the simplest possible terms, CRISPR works like a cut and paste scissors and glue stick solution at a DNA level. CRISPR is an important and ground breaking development in the world of DNA modification, because it not only makes the process more precise it also makes it less costly.
CRISPR gene modification technologies, however, are also considered to be very controversial. According to a report published in Forbes Magazine, CRISPR can lead to unexpected unwanted gene modifications, and the technology cannot yet be predicted and controlled well enough to be applied to humankind. The latest research found hundreds of mutations in experimental mice that weren't supposed to be there: as well as the gene mutations they were targeting, other mutations were occurring of their own accord. This shock result was published widely in the scientific world because it contradicted earlier studies that lead to a rise in the interest in CRISPR and purported that CRISPR did not in fact cause any additional, untargeted mutations.
This latest finding means that CRISPR technology appears to temporarily be in limbo. Yet researchers believe CRISPR still has the potential to improve and enrich the lives of millions. While the research continues, some critics believe it will be decades before CRISPR technology has been improved and stabilized enough to be moved beyond the lab and applied to humans.
There are three primary areas where scientists hope that CRISPR can be applied to enrich human wellbeing. These are in health diagnostics, curing hereditary diseases, and fighting cancer.
In the United States alone, an incredible 600,000 people each year will lose their lives to cancer. This figure duplicates significantly when looking at cancer rates from the rest of the world. One of the main attack paths cancer chooses is to attack T cells. Scientists are now assessing whether they can reprogram T- cells to resist, and ultimately destroy the cancer that is working so hard to destroy them.
There are more than 10,000 hereditary health conditions that are the direct result of the modification of one single gene, and it is single gene mutations that CRISPR is most suited to ‘curing’. While pain management medication and such techniques as physiotherapy are often sited as cost-effective solutions to chronic and hereditary conditions, CRISPR poses an affordable long term solution that could cure hundreds of thousands of patients without any additional expense. Its affordability is what makes CRISPR look so appealing to many healthcare providers.
Finally, CRISPR poses exciting possibilities in health diagnostics: before an illness can be cured it needs to be diagnosed and CRISPR technology can be used to analyze blood and saliva to diagnose the patient’s specific ailment quickly and as cheaply as possible. This is an exciting proposition for medical professions, who could well use this technology to diagnose conditions that might otherwise be missed, and to save lives.
The ethical dilemma that gene modification poses on a state level means that while these theoretical advances are incredible, at a policy level, it is difficult to see if and when they will be implemented. But the prospect remains exciting, and the potential human implications could be truly lifesaving.