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Last month saw the first-ever approval of a gene therapy that uses the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing tool, a treatment for the blood conditions sickle-cell disease and β-thalassaemia that works by precisely cutting out a faulty gene in people’s stem cells.
Now, researchers in search of new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are hoping to deploy similar strategies against forms of the disease that are caused by genetic mutations.
Although there are now some treatments that slow the progression of Alzheimer’s, these often don’t benefit people who are in the later stages or who have mutations that raise the risk of the disease.
“CRISPR therapies could potentially be a one-and-done cure, which no other drug can match,” says Subhojit Roy, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego. But he adds that there is a long way to go before these therapies could be deployed against such a complex condition. “Cutting and pasting a gene is much harder to do in the brain using current technology.”
www.nature.com
Now, researchers in search of new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are hoping to deploy similar strategies against forms of the disease that are caused by genetic mutations.
Although there are now some treatments that slow the progression of Alzheimer’s, these often don’t benefit people who are in the later stages or who have mutations that raise the risk of the disease.
“CRISPR therapies could potentially be a one-and-done cure, which no other drug can match,” says Subhojit Roy, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego. But he adds that there is a long way to go before these therapies could be deployed against such a complex condition. “Cutting and pasting a gene is much harder to do in the brain using current technology.”
How CRISPR gene editing could help treat Alzheimer’s
Some researchers hoping that gene-editing technology can conquer forms of Alzheimer’s caused by genetic mutations.
www.nature.com
