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British scientists have used gene editing techniques to prevent bird flu from spreading in laboratory-grown chicken cells – a key step in the production of genetically modified chickens that could put an end to the disease. human influenza pandemic.
PHOTO FILE: A health worker receives disinfection after slaughtering poultry in a wholesale market, the live poultry trade suspended after a check on a local street market revealed the presence of the H7N9 bird flu virus in Hong Kong June 7, 2016. REUTERS / Bobby Yip / Photo File
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LONDON, June 3: British scientists have used genetic modification techniques to prevent the spread of avian influenza in chicken cells grown in a laboratory: a key step in the production of genetically modified chickens capable of ending a human influenza pandemic.
Bird flu viruses are currently spreading rapidly among wild birds and poultry and can sometimes spread to humans. Global health and infectious disease experts have identified as one of their main concerns the threat of a human influenza pandemic caused by a bird flu strain that makes such a leap and turns into a deadly, airborne form that can easily switch from one person to another.
In the latest study, researchers at Imperial College London and the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh prevented the bird flu virus from implanting in cells and reproducing.
The next step will be to try to produce chickens with the same genetic change, said Mike McGrew of the Roslin Institute, who co-led the research. The results should be published in the eLife scientific journal on June 4th.
"This is an important advance that suggests that we might be able to use gene editing techniques to produce chickens resistant to bird flu," said McGrew. in a statement.
"We have not produced any birds yet and we need to check if the DNA change has any other effects on the bird cells before we can move on to the next one." Next step. "
BLOCK THE VIRUS
As part of further work, the team hopes to use gene modification technology, known as CRISPR, to remove some of the DNA from birds responsible for the production of a protein called ANP32, all of which Influenza viruses need to infect a host.
Laboratory tests of cells modified to be devoid of the gene have shown that they resist the influenza virus – blocking its entry and stopping its replication and spread.
The balance sheet of the last influenza pandemic in 2009/10 – caused by the H1N1 strain and considered relatively benign – had risen to about half a million people worldwide. The history of the Spanish flu of 1918 killed about 50 million people.
Wendy Barclay, professor and influenza virology chair at the Imperial who was working with McGrew, explains that the idea of developing gene-resistant, flu-resistant chickens is to "stop the next flu pandemic at the source ".
And she said the work to date has been promising: "We've identified the smallest genetic change we can make to chickens that can help prevent the virus from spreading."
(Edited by Gareth Jones)
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