4 Diseases That Could Be Cured Using CRISPR Technology

Scientists are constantly finding new ways to treat various diseases; they believe CRISPR technology can cure many diseases. 

Fremont, CA: CRISPR technology has the prospect of using gene editing to heal any human genetic condition. This approach marked a significant advancement over prior gene-editing systems, which required creating a bespoke DNA-cutting enzyme for each target sequence rather than merely giving an RNA guide, which is much easier to make. CRISPR is currently in the early phases of therapeutic development in practice, but it has the potential to allow scientists to edit any genetic mutation at will in order to cure any disease with a genetic cause.

Here is a list of five diseases that can be cured using CRISPR technology:

Blindness

There is currently no treatment for genetic blindness. Because a single genetic mutation causes many hereditary forms of blindness, CRISPR-Cas9 can treat them by changing a single gene. Furthermore, the immune system's activity is restricted in the eye, which helps to avoid any issues with the body rejecting the treatment.

Cancer

The gene that codes for the protein PD-1 is removed using gene-editing techniques.

Some cancer medicines, such as checkpoint inhibitors, target this protein located on the surface of immune cells. Because some tumor cells can connect to the PD-1 protein and suppress the immune response to malignancy, this is the case. Various countries have already initiated the first clinical trials using CRISPR-Cas9 as a cancer treatment.

Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary condition that causes significant breathing difficulties. Despite the fact that there are treatments for the symptoms, a person with this condition has a life expectancy of only about 40 years. By altering the mutations that cause cystic fibrosis in a gene called CFTR, CRISPR technology could help doctors get to the root of the disease.

AIDS

CRISPR has several applications in the battle against AIDS. One method uses CRISPR to break the viral DNA that the HIV virus inserts into immune cells' DNA. This method could be used to fight the virus in its dormant, inactive state, which is why most therapies fail to eradicate the pathogen entirely. Another method is to use genetic editing to make human embryos immune to HIV infections.