Mouse research: CRISPR technology may lead to thousands of unwanted mutations

Can gene editing lead to thousands of unwanted mutations? This is a question raised by a mouse study The idea of gene editing is to change a single DNA sequence in a cell genome without touching other genome sequences However, in fact, every gene editing method sometimes leads to undesirable changes It's not a problem if you don't want to change a low percentage of genes, because most mutations have no effect However, some specific gene mutations can lead to cancer Therefore, the safety of cripsr technology depends on how high the target mutation laws it produces If there are undesirable mutations in CRISPR technology, most studies have found few mutations However, almost all of these studies look for out of target mutations by predicting what they might be, and then understand if they can be found Stephen Tsang (source: Columbia University) Stephen Tsang and his team at Columbia University Medical Center now use a broader method to sequence the genes of two mice edited by CRISPR technology and compare them with the control group without gene editing In this way, they identified more than 1000 common gene mutations in two genetically modified mice, which they believed were caused by CRISPR technology Tang said it was a tiny study and they didn't know if other teams could get similar results with the same technology Even if these results can be repeated, the problem is to use the specific CRISPR technology used in this case Even if further experiments show that there are some problems in using CRISPR technology in general, this should still be solved Other teams have changed the CRISPR / cas9 system to reduce the risk of Miss mutation In addition, many potential selective proteins may have less undesirable effects when using CRISPR Although Tsang and colleagues say they are still optimistic about CRISPR, they hope that other researchers will use their own methods to ensure that missing mutations are found and, if possible, to avoid excessive mutations "This will go into clinical trials and is being applied to crops." "Maybe USDA and FDA should get our approach before they approve CRISPR guidelines for humans and food," Tsang said Original link: https:// extended reading: gene editing has saved the lives of two children with leukaemia; editing life: a guide to the genetic revolution on our doorstep; gene editing starts to save lives as human trials get under way