CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing using targeted lipid nanoparticles for cancer therapy
One of the more hopeful prospects for cure of ovarian cancer is the relatively new technique of “Gene Shears”. First described in 2017 this employs a natural body defense against infection and tumour called CRISPR editing. CRISPR is an abbreviation of “clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”.
The CRISPR location on chromosomal DNA of cancer cells is vulnerable to attack by a protein enzyme, in this case Cas9. After the attack or gene shear the cell is damaged and cell death occurs. A problem with this is the delivery of the enzyme to the right target.
This report shows treatment with gene shears for two tumours in mice; brain and ovarian tumours. Both respond to the enzyme, which was delivered as micro RNA in lipid nanoparticles, similar to new COVID-19 vaccine technology. Early results are encouraging and will probably lead to clinical trials for human patients.
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