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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Can CRISPR be used against Alzheimer's Disease?
« on: 18/10/2017 07:55:44 »
Potentially, far ahead in the future, perhaps. However, the state of the technology as it stands right now, no. CRISPR works on the concept of being able to inject/transcribe specific guide RNA sequences in cells. These RNA sequences target a specific genomic locus, and in the presence of the Cas9 protein, make a double stranded cut. The cut is then repaired by the cell either using the cell's existing repair mechanisms, or with a donor sequence of DNA that you co-inject into the cell.
The technique sounds pretty workable in theory, but there are a lot of problems. My knowledge of this technique is limited to cell culture and Drosophila, but I can see a couple of big feasibility problems right off (w.r.t applying this technique to cure SNP-diseases in humans).
1. How do you get adult humans cells to express or contain the Cas9 protein ? /Delivery of Cas9 protein
2. Delivery of the guide RNA sequences
Both of these will have to be solved before we can claim to cure SNP diseases.
The technique sounds pretty workable in theory, but there are a lot of problems. My knowledge of this technique is limited to cell culture and Drosophila, but I can see a couple of big feasibility problems right off (w.r.t applying this technique to cure SNP-diseases in humans).
1. How do you get adult humans cells to express or contain the Cas9 protein ? /Delivery of Cas9 protein
2. Delivery of the guide RNA sequences
Both of these will have to be solved before we can claim to cure SNP diseases.