CRISPR-Cas9 genetic edition
CRISPR-Cas9 genetic edition
- A way to replace DNA sequences
Roddelgado [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
CRISPR-Cas9 is a genetic editing technique that is used to modify the genome of any cell (La Hiperactina, 2018; MindMachineTV, 2019; Moran, 2015), a simple way to explain it, is to talk about this tool as if it were molecular scissors. The acronym CRISPR comes from Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, while Cas9 or CRISPR Associated System refers to an enzyme that is generated by a cell when attacked by a virus, this enzyme is responsible for saving the data of, for example, the invading DNA of the attacking virus, so in the future, if the cell becomes infected again, it will be able to cut the invading DNA (Ryan, 2019). This technology was born in 1987, observing how Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria defended themselves against some viruses, having enzymes capable of differentiating between the genetic material of the virus and that of the bacteria itself, later, by contributions such as those of female doctors Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, was able to find the basis of this mechanism, in which some areas of the genome had repetitions in the shape of palindromes, separated by sequences called spacers and headed by a sequence called leader, this set of sequences is what known as CRISPR. The genetic edition through CRISPR-Cas9, consists of two stages, the first is to associate the guide RNA with the Cas9, this RNA must be specific for a DNA sequence, then by nucleotide complementary rules it will hybridize with the Target DNA, at this point, Cas9 acts and cuts the target DNA; in the second stage, the natural mechanisms of DNA repair are activated, in which the modified DNA is inserted through the CRISPR-Cas9 tool. This technique is still in the experimental phase and therefore its use in humans is not currently recommended, but in 2018, Dr. He Jiankui, modified two babies to be immune to the AIDS virus, this by deleting the gene CCR5 (Román, 2019), the problem is that by doing this, babies are more likely to get other diseases, such as West Nile virus and Japanese encephalitis (El Robot de Platón, 2018).
References:
El Robot de Platón. (7 dic. 2018). Por qué es preocupante lo que ha pasado en China [Video]. Recuperado de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6FfhB3fnKQ
La Hiperactina. (30 dic. 2018). ¿Cómo hacer EDICIÓN GENÉTICA con CRISPR? | La Hiperactina [Video]. Recuperado de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaxrYWCyLdY
MindMachineTV. (21 oct. 2019). ¿Qué es CRISPR/Cas9? [Video]. Recuperado de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYRqK2rBWs4
Moran, A. (2015). “¿Qué es la tecnología CRISPR/Cas9 y cómo nos cambiará la vida?”. En Dciencia. Recuperado de https://www.dciencia.es/que-es-la-tecnologia-crispr-cas9/
MindMachineTV. (21 oct. 2019). ¿Qué es CRISPR/Cas9? [Video]. Recuperado de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYRqK2rBWs4
Moran, A. (2015). “¿Qué es la tecnología CRISPR/Cas9 y cómo nos cambiará la vida?”. En Dciencia. Recuperado de https://www.dciencia.es/que-es-la-tecnologia-crispr-cas9/
Román, V. (2019). “China sentenció a 3 años de cárcel a He Jiankui, el doctor que editó genéticamente a dos gemelas”. En N+1. Recuperado de https://nmas1.org/news/2019/12/30/he-jiankui-carcel-china
Ryan, J. (2019). “¿Qué es CRISPR?: Esta herramienta está revolucionando la ingeniería genética”. En CNET en Español. Recuperado de https://www.cnet.com/es/noticias/crispr-que-es-edicion-genetica-ingenieria/
How to cite this article:
Nocetti, F.A. (2020). "CRISPR-Cas9 genetic edition". In NabbuBlog. Retrieved from http://nabbublog.blogspot.com/2020/01/crispr-cas9-genetic-edition.html