Cancer: The Edition of the CRISPR Gene Could Make Immunotherapy Less Expensive

CRISPR is obviously a fascinating technology. Its main feature is that it can literally be used to cut, dice and manipulate the functions of the body's genetic code that could have astonishing implications for one day treating hereditary diseases to cancer until HIV / AIDS.

(albeit very early) research suggests that CRISPR could be used to dramatically improve a new form of cancer control methods that turn the body's own T cells into specifically targeted killers that attack cancerous tissues.

that's because a pair of drug giants Novartis and Gilead therapies called Kymriah and Yescarta, which is part of a new class known as CAR-T, have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year. These treatments involve extracting immune T cells, re-engineering in a home-based laboratory about cancers, multiply them, and then reinsert them into the patients body. The results can be staggering for some hard-to-treat cancer patients.

But the process of T cell reengineering is thwarted by the need to use "viral vectors" – a costly and expansive biological constraint that simply slows down the ability to insert DNA. beneficial in an immune cell and the amount of genomic data that can be reused for the purpose of killing cancer. The experimental technique tested by scientists UCLA and UCSF (supported by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, established by technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Sean Parker) could theoretically bypass these constraints and create a process less expensive, faster and more effective for the manufacture of cancer patients. of a patient's own biology by modifying the building blocks of certain cells.

And that also has implications beyond cancer. The "cut-and-paste" system uses an electric field to facilitate the rapid elimination and replacement of DNA, which could eventually help fight infectious, hereditary and other diseases.

"It's a fast and flexible method that can be used to alter, enhance and reprogram T cells to give them the specificity we want to destroy cancer, recognize infections, or reduce immune response excessive excess seen in autoimmune diseases, "said Alex Marson, lead author of the new study., in a report." Now we leave for races on all these fronts. "

Subscribe to Brainstorm Health Daily our newsletter on health innovations.