The enigmatic CRISPER Cas 9 By Katherine Lightwood

The enigmatic CRISPER Cas 9

By Katherine Lightwood

A few days ago while sitting in my class and frustratingly scrolling down through my phone in search of some topic I came across an article which kind of blew my mind. Because of my limited knowledge of genetics and molecular biology I could understand what a havoc CRISPER Cas 9 can create in our body if we don't know everything about it. And for sure, research is going about this and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

A lot of hay has been made about CRISPER Cas 9, the gene editing technique, so precise, so easy, so versatile that it opened the possibility of chopping and swapping DNA around like a molecular level Dr. Frankenstein.

The implications are huge for our humans and our genome. Like we could alter the genes of embryos, or treat genetic disease in those who already born. Now, in 2018 clinical; trials on humans are scheduled to start for the first time. But just as they are getting underway, there might be a problem and all the thanks to our immune system.

To understand why our immune system is being a jerk and preventing us from treating disorders like sickle cell anemia, it helps to take a step back and remember exactly what CRISPER Cas 9 is. It's actually an immune response bacteria use to protect themselves from viruses. Cas 9 is a protein that the bacteria make that act as molecular scissors cutting viruses to ribbons. And two of the most commonly used Cas 9 comes from bacteria that can cause strep infection and staph throat.

These are the bacteria we want our immune system to have a defense against. And to defend against them our immune system has to be able to recognize the bacteria and the various proteins they make. So, that they can track them down and destroy them.

To see if these two versions of Cas 9 were on our immune system's hit list, the researchers test the blood of 34 donors for antibodies. They found 65% has a defense against Streph version while 79% fought the Staph variety.

So if our immune system responds to CRISPER, it would mean more then just rendering the therapy ineffective. It could make our immune system go haywire and kill us, which has happened in a previous attempt in human gene therapy.   

So, that was my thought of the day. To see more posts like this make sure to visit our main page. And Do not forget to visit our institute's page to know more about graphic design, 3D, animation courses and other awesome stuff. Till then good day to you.

Katherine Lightwood