4 ms·

I'm curious, have you heard any talk about using a CRISPR/Integrase combination to insert extra RB gene(s)? I feel like inserting extra copies of a tumor supres

• jfarlow 10y ago
  My background is not clinical, so I'm not familiar with many of the current trials. Though it does appear that most gene therapies are starting with easier and more accessible targets with a higher risk/reward ratio than a prophylactic against cancer. Also, though it may seem obvious that having more tumor suppressor proteins like retinoblastoma protein [1], or Brca [2] or p53 [3] should be a good thing, I don't think it is always so straightforward. On the other hand, elephants do have 20 copies of p53 - and they have way more cells than humans without getting a proportional amount of cancer. Also if you think about 'where' you'd have to target the excess protein with the therapy it would be 'everywhere that might develop cancer', which is a much more difficult target than asking where to put the gene that encodes for hemoglobin. tldr; we'll get there, but we're starting with more mechanistically determined/constrained problems before we move on to a cancer prophylactic. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinoblastoma_protein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinoblastoma_protein [2] https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/brca1/ https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/brca1/ [3] https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/p53/ https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/p53/