Monday, August 22, 2016

New genetic technology being tested on people – New Technology

Now pull the attempts to treat people with the hot new genetic engineering crispr in time. First up is the Chinese scientists. American scientists is also in the starting blocks.

Four years ago discovered a new smart approach to cut and paste in the genes. Behind the breakthrough was, inter alia, the French molecular biologist Emmanuelle Charpentier then did research at Umeå University.

Genetic engineering, which has the scientific name crispr / Cas 9, has since been used in thousands of labs worldwide. The applications are in everything from plant breeding to health care. Most hyped is the hope of cures for serious diseases.

Now, announced researchers at the University Hospital, West China Hospital of Sichuan Province in China to the so-called genkniven be used in patients with lung cancer, there are no other treatments had an effect.

– It’s been furiously. Often it lead times of at least 10 years before a new technology can begin to be tested in clinical trials, says Magnus Lundgren, a microbiologist at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Uppsala University.

Close on the heels is American scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. At the end of the year they expect to start clinical trials genkniven used as weapons against skin cancer, bone marrow cancer, and sarcoma (cancer of the body’s supporting tissues).

In both studies will defense cells in the body’s immune system (T-cells) are trimmed to become more aggressive in respect to attack cancer cells.

– Genkniven be used to remove one type of fuse which prevents t-cells attack the body’s own cells. Many cancer cells also uses hedging to avoid being attacked. The modified and more aggressive T-cells is then transferred back into the patient’s blood.

Different studies about anyway?

– In addition to dealing about different types of cancer, the American research group to make further changes in t-cell genome. It must both increase efficiency part ensure that the cells primarily attacks the cancer cells.

Which patients should be included in studies?

– Both China and the US will man selecting critically ill patients where other treatments have failed. The first step is to see that the treatment itself is not harmful. Both studies also includes a few individuals.

What are the concerns?

– There is a risk that genkniven cuts in the wrong places, even if it is low . A classic side-effect of it could be cancer. But the risk of felklipp decreasing all the time, especially if you use the latest methods.

What do you think about the trials?

– The treatments are highly relevant to a solid science behind it. It will be interesting to see how they fall out.

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