New gene-editing technology offers hope

A new gene-editing technique has been used for the first time to alter immune cells and treat leukemia.

A month after 13-year-old Alyssa in the UK was treated with a new gene editing technique called base editing, her leukemia was in remission and several months later she is still doing well. CNN.

New, more accurate technology

Instead of using the Crispr gene-editing technology to alter donor immune cells, the more precise basic editing technique was used.

The modified immune cells are then given to the patient and they can: according to one press release From University College London: “Find T cells in the body and destroy them quickly, Including T-cell leukemias.”

Because base editing is a more precise gene-editing technique than Crispr technology, it offers a lower risk of unwanted effects on chromosomes, resulting in a lower risk of side effects.

Advanced cell technology

By editing the base, researchers at Great Ormond Street and University College London were able to take healthy T cells from donors, remove two genetic markers and prevent the modified cells from being destroyed by a patient’s immune system or by chemotherapy.

“It is our most advanced cell technology to date and paves the way for other new therapies and ultimately a better future for sick children,” he says. Waseem QasimCNN writes.

He is Professor of Cellular and Gene Therapy at University College London who led the research that produced Alisa donor cells.

It can extend to other diseases

Otis Brawley He was not involved in the new research, however He tells CNN that the underlying modification could extend to other diseases.

He is a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University and Chief Medical Officer and Scientific Director of the American Cancer Society.

“This technology will help us in many other diseases. For example, we have already used CRISPR to treat sickle cell disease. We may be able to use this gene modification to treat sickle cell disease easier, better and cheaper,” Han told CNN.

Cautiously optimistic

He is cautiously optimistic and wants to see more treatments with the new method before he sees it working.

For Alyssa, basic editing has been life-changing. She was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, T-ALL, last year.

Her cancer was not cured with chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant and what was left for her was palliative care.

In May, she became the first person in the world to receive the modified immune cells, and six months after the transplant, she is still doing well.

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