For the first time, experts from Tel Aviv University in Israel have utilized a Nobel Prize-winning technology to eliminate cancer cells in mice. They have used the CRISPR or CAS9 system to cure insistent cancers. Experts have claimed that it will be a groundbreaking achievement in the fight against the dreaded disease. CRISPR or CAS9 is a type of gene-editing tool, which is used as a genetic scissor by scientists. With this tool, experts can add or change sections of the DNA sequence. This technology has been used in treating certain conditions in embryos. However, experts have been trying to see if it can be used for fully-grown adults as well. Experts have been using this tool in mice to treat cancer in the Laboratory of Precision Nanomedicine at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research. The findings of this study have been released in Science Daily.
Experts have claimed that they have made a novel lipid nanoparticle-based delivery system, which precisely aims at cancer cells and eliminates them by genetic manipulation. Experts have said that it is the first study in the world, which has proved that a genome-editing system can be utilized to treat difficult cancers efficiently. Researchers have stated that it is not chemotherapy and it does not have side effects. They as well have claimed that cancer cells treated with this technology will not reoccur in the future. As per the experts a molecular scissor, CAS9 cuts the DNA of cancer cells. It eliminates them quite precisely and prevents cancer cells from replicating again.
In the study, experts have used the two most deadly forms of cancer. The first one is glioblastoma, which is a deadly form of brain cancer and the second one is metastatic ovarian cancer. Experts have found that, with one shot of CRISPR-LNPs treatment, the life expectancy in mice infected with glioblastoma has increased by two-fold and their overall survival rate has shot up by 30 percent. Experts have used the same treatment on mice with ovarian cancer; they have seen a nearly 80 percent increase in their overall survival rate. Scientists can disrupt, heal, or replace genes in a personalized manner with the help of CRISPR genome editing. This tool is being used extensively in research projects; however, the use of this tool in clinical trials is still not well adapted because it needs an effective delivery system for safely and accurately sending the CRISPR to its target cells.