Science: gene therapy is expected to prevent nerve agents such as sarin for a long time

January 27, 2020 / biool / - -- in a new study, researchers from the US Army Institute of chemical defense medicine found that a single injection of a genetically modified virus could protect mice from sarin and other deadly chemical warfare agents for months The discovery could help protect not only soldiers and civilians in the war zone, but also farm workers who are often exposed to similar toxic substances The related research results were published in the Journal of Science Translational Medicine on January 22, 2020 The title of the paper is "gene therapy delivering a paraoxonase 1 variant offers long term proactive protection against incentive agents in mice" The picture is from cc0 public domain As a colorless and tasteless compound, sarin is a kind of nerve poison, which has been used in terrorist attacks and conflicts It is also known that chemical weapons are the most toxic and have the fastest effect Its mechanism of action is to poison the nervous system, cause severe muscle spasm and suffocate people by paralyzing their lungs Nerve agents are extremely difficult to treat because they attack so quickly that there is little time to give antidotes to prevent death This suggests that the ideal treatment for nerve agents requires measures to protect potential victims long before exposure Some enzymes can search for and degrade nerve agents Scientists have experimented by inserting a gene encoding such an enzyme, paraoxonase 1 variant if-11 (pon1-if11), into an adeno-associated virus 8 (AAV8), which is known to cause no disease The researchers then injected the genetically modified AAV8 into mice Nageswararo chilukuri, a biochemist at the Army Institute of chemical defense medicine and a co-author of the paper, said they found that the injection completely protected the mice from eight lethal doses of sarin and similar nerve agents, and that the gene therapy showed no signs of side effects This protective effect lasted for up to five months Sarin is a chemical called organophosphate, which can also be used as an insecticide In the future, the researchers plan to test the genetically engineered virus in larger animals, such as monkeys, in the hope that it may one day help protect military and medical personnel, farm workers, and other people at risk of exposure to organic phosphates Chilukuri said future research must also confirm the long-term safety of genetically modified viruses used for the gene therapy (bio Com) reference: 1 Venkaiah betapudi et al Gene therapy delivering a paraoxonase 1 variant offers long-term proactive protection against neve agents in mice Science Translational Medicine, 2020, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aay0356 2 Genetically engineered virus protection mice against deadly effects of neve gas and pesticides https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-01-genetically-virus-mice-deadly-effects.html