Can viral infection be treated with Cas9?

Hepatitis B virus undergoes a complete replication cycle that requires five major steps:

1. Recognition of hepatocytes by surface antigen HbsAg and entry into cells
2. Enter the nucleus and expose its genomic HBV-DNA through the core antigens HbcAG and HbEAG
3. Rely on HBV-DNA polymerase to form intact covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA)
4. Transcribe cccDNA in the nucleus and translate all coat proteins and enzymes
5. Re-transcription from mRNA to HBV-DNA and assembly into a new virus

The current anti-hepatitis B drugs mainly include interferons and nucleoside drugs. Interferon produces antiviral proteins through the action of cell surface receptors. Nucleoside drugs are antiviral by the synthesis and prolonged competitive inhibition of viral DNA. These drugs can not completely kill HBV in the human body, and can only breed or replicate HBV. This is because the cccDNA of hepatitis B virus is very powerful. They usually lie in the nucleus of the liver cell, and isolate the anti-hepatitis B drugs by the hard nuclear membrane of the nucleus. Therefore, cccDNA is a very important target for hepatitis B treatment.

The CRISPR/CAS9 technology is familiar to everyone, and it can target DNA sequences by scanning RNA (sgRNA). What made us think of this? Yes, CAS9 can't enter the core and then kill the old cccDNA! Some scientists have thought and done this. An article on the Scientific Report on the treatment of hepatitis B with CAS9 technology gave us a lot of tips. The authors designed a range of targets for cccDNA and screened at the cellular level.

Finally, three effective targets (6, 17, 21) were obtained. It was also confirmed by animal experiments that the viral inhibition rate of the 17th target can reach 92% or more. Moreover, through the introduction of an effective target, not only the replication of the virus but also the cccDNA in the nucleus is destroyed, and the nail in the eye is fundamentally unplugged.

It’s really encouraging news, but some of my classmates sighed in the corner. I didn’t think of such a good idea. Now, when others eat meat, I can’t even drink soup. Don't be sad, we still have a lot of things to do from this article. First of all, I can use CAS9 to treat hepatitis B and then filter other effective targets. The target in this article is just for me. Yangshen control target. If I am doing hepatitis B drug research, can I use this method together with my medicine to improve the efficacy? Can I use the AAV method to improve the biosafety of this treatment? The idea of ​​using the CAS9 method to treat hepatitis B can also be applied to treat other viral infections. There are still many points worthy of our deep digging!

Jikai Gene has been able to provide a valid target CAS9 kit for research use in the literature. It can be used as a new therapy for ginseng or synergistic drugs to accelerate your research progress and strive to publish high-level papers as soon as possible!

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