So this title is a bit misleading; something like, "cells edited with CRISPR injected into a person for the first time" would be better. While CRISPR is promising for topological treatments, that's not what happened here.<p>The team took white blood cells out of a patient's body, used CRISPR to knock out a gene which suppresses immune response, then injected those same cells back into the patient, hoping that they would attack the cancer without that inhibiting gene.<p>If this <i>were</i> a live CRISPR treatment in a human, it would probably make more sense to just knock out the activated oncogene(s) in the patient's cancer cells and/or repair the deactivated tumor suppressant gene(s).
Here's a Kurzgesagt video about CRISPR for anyone that's curious: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAhjPd4uNFY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAhjPd4uNFY</a>
I was reading Oryx and Crake and I was thinking "There's no way this could happen... right?" then Trump said he basically wants to get rid of the FDA and EPA and now there's talk of a biomedical duel in human gene-editing?<p>Oh boy.<p>I can't wait to get a rakunk, myself.
>"The researchers removed immune cells from the recipient’s blood and then disabled a gene in them using CRISPR–Cas9, which combines a DNA-cutting enzyme with a molecular guide that can be programmed to tell the enzyme precisely where to cut. The disabled gene codes for the protein PD-1, which normally puts the brakes on a cell’s immune response: cancers take advantage of that function to proliferate.<p>Lu’s team then cultured the edited cells, increasing their number, and injected them back into the patient, who has metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. The hope is that, without PD-1, the edited cells will attack and defeat the cancer."<p>Or maybe it was this:<p>>"The researchers removed immune cells from the recipient’s blood and then <i>selectively killed most cells containing a certain sequence</i> using CRISPR–Cas9, which combines a DNA-cutting enzyme with a molecular guide that can be programmed to tell the enzyme precisely where to cut. The <i>targeted</i> gene codes for the protein PD-1, which normally puts the brakes on a cell’s immune response: cancers take advantage of that function to proliferate.<p>Lu’s team then cultured the <i>surviving</i> cells, increasing their number, and injected them back into the patient, who has metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. The hope is that, without PD-1, the <i>selected-for cell population</i> will attack and defeat the cancer."<p>Since there is no paper (only press release) we can't say much more about which explanation is most plausible in this case.
This makes me feel that i.e. looking for bone marrow donors may become obsolete in some cases, <i>if</i> we know the gene sequence responsible for the disease. Instead of looking for donors, it may actually be possible to repair bone marrow cells and inject them back, fixing the problem. Am I missing something here?
Good! I can't wait for the day I can get a shot to knock out my debilitating 'seasonal' allergies permanently, at the gene level, instead of having to rely on potions and powders of steroids, anti-inflammatories, and other fun chemicals.
> The hope is that, without PD-1, the edited cells will attack and defeat the cancer.<p>It seems that we already have good drugs which inhibit interaction between PD-1 and PD-L1 is there really enough benefit from this?
I think the best (or worst?) part is that CRISPR can be used with a 'gene drive' it keeps the changes active on on-going it's not a one shot thing.<p>GATTACA?
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR</a> -> Cures Disease<p>Eventually...<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR</a> -> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca</a><p>And...<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR</a> -> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins_2:_The_New_Batch" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins_2:_The_New_Batch</a><p>I hope we cure a lot of diseases before we get into the bad side of genmods.