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CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

npr.org

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Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#91

Post by bawana »

So the religious right decided that we do not own our bodies, god does. Just as software companies issue a EULA, all children born since 2032 are required to have their parents sign a EULA. Genetic modification is strictly prohibited and punishable by reduction of the government stipend that everyone receives in fedcoin every month. Underground genetic modification labs are run by organized crime but unfortunately those using these labs also get an unplanned genetic modification in addition to the one they want. They are made dependent on a drug that only those labs can provide, for a price. In addition, there are monthly vaccination programs for citizens to protect them against genetic terrorists, carriers of lethal protoviruses who are engineered to carry and disseminate Covid derivatives that target HLA SUBTYPES common in Northern European and South American genotypes.

Yes genetic modification is another wonderful technology that humans will weaponize….like atomic energy, like the internet…

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#92

Post by semi-extrinsic »

dcwardell wrote: post #73

Crazy genetics ideas I would like explored A modified tree that drops nuts of (nearly) pure graphite or some other form of nondecomposable carbon which we can easily harvest and sequester. Photosynthesis in humans to supplement our energy consumption. Shoutout to Knights of Sidonia. I understand the ethical issues surrounding the second one.

I believe the graphite nut proposal is too inefficient to work. A single large tree absorbs around 30 kg of CO2 per year. If it was able to put 10% of that into graphite nuts (which would be a very good efficiency), you end up with 0.8 kg of graphite nuts per tree per year.

To match the IEAs projections for carbon capture (7.5 gigatonnes CO2 captured per year in 2050) you would need around 3*10^12 trees. That's about the same as the total number of trees in the world. So you need to replace all of the worlds trees, with the corresponding destruction of many of the biggest ecosystems on earth.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#93

Post by skybrian »

ausbah wrote: post #43

>Doctors infused billions of microscopic structures known as nanoparticles carrying genetic instructions for the CRISPR gene-editor into four patients in London and two in New Zealand. The nanoparticles were absorbed by their livers, where they unleashed armies of CRISPR gene-editors. The CRISPR editor honed in on the target gene in the liver and sliced it, disabling production of the destructive protein. this is one…

Note that the liver is perhaps the easiest target since it filters the blood.

See: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/05/20/cr...

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#94

Post by jonplackett »

rorykoehler wrote: post #89
jonplackett wrote: post #80

Wonder how long it will be until this is used to enhance rather than just to cure. Eg selective fast twitch / slow twitch muscle fibres.

Probably already happening

Presumably it would be damn hard to detect if it was!

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#95

Post by pkdpic_y9k »

nitrogen wrote: post #86
DoctorNick wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The record breaking temperatures that I'm suffering in the PNW right now serves as a grim reminder that we won't have much of a future, even with all this cool tech.

Stop with the doom trolling and get busy inventing solutions.

Heck yeah, this why I keep coming back the HN community. But if you gotta get that doom trolling out too its all good as long as it reminds us all how hard we gotta keep workin :^)

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#96

Post by pkdpic_y9k »

nr2x wrote: post #77
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want something that replicates in the environment and removes carbon? We have those. They're called "plants."

Even if we reforested every possible area, the current rate of carbon outlay exceeds capacity to absorb. Well explained in the Economist video: https://youtu.be/EXkbdELr4EQ

Does this include ocean farming based carbon capture? That sounded like a pretty positive route in terms of land use limitations when I heard about it.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#97

Post by wgolsen »

rolleiflex wrote: post #78
noveltyaccount wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a one-time treatment? Does it remove all of the offending genetic material, and then when those cells divide they are cured? Or does it require ongoing treatment?

It’s editing the genes of the cells of the liver, so presumably when those liver cells divide and multiply, the change would also be copied along as well. What isn’t clear to me is that if this is targeted at the liver cells in particular, or splicing it for every cell in the body. In other words, this could be a germline mutation (passed to children) or it could be a somatic mutation (no change to future children),…

When administered IV, most LNPs of this type are highly selective for hepatocytes. This edit cannot be passed on as no germ cells will be transfected.

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#98

Post by pkdpic_y9k »

nr2x wrote: post #72
cj wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not impossible to speculate the possibility that in 50-100 years, climate change could be reversed through a CRISPR-like technology (e.g. something that can be released and replicate in the environment, thereby changing it). Or at the very least, I can see a future where gene editing could relieve your suffering from heat by raising the threshold your body can tolerate :)

At current rates of carbon outlay, there won’t be much of a world left to save in 100 years.

Not unless we all work our asses off! Engineers can do anything :^)

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#99

Post by gwern »

hmmmhmmmhmmm wrote: post #6

Original paper: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2107454?query=fe... This is the first published IV-administration of a gene-editing CRISPR payload. Interesting convergence with the nanoparticles used in mRNA vaccines. Sickle-cell and immune reprogramming edits have been made on cells removed from the body. Josiah Zayner infamously injected himself with CRISPR at a conference years back, but (1) unpublishe…

Mirror: https://www.gwern.net/docs/genetics/editing/2021-gillmore.pd...

Re: CRISPR gene-editing breakthrough opens door to treating broad array of diseases

#100

Post by wgolsen »

palijer wrote: post #35

I feel like I missed something, and now everywhere I look we have headlines like this. What's wrong with "CRISPR gene editing shown to cure Transthyretin amyloidosis in patient study" Maybe I'm now one of the old people who doesn't understand new usage of language. But I understand that usage dictates grammar rules, but I feel I missed something.

In my opinion, and it seems in the NPR editor’s opinion, the most exciting angle to this story isn’t the cure of one relatively rare disease (TAA), but rather the seemingly imminent cure of many/most inherited diseases which affect cells of the liver. Indeed, we can even make edits that confer protective benefits to people at risk for diseases due to mutations OR lifestyle (see a similar approach by Verve Therapeutics). This is a big story which deserves the attention grabbing headline.
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