A group of researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, California, USA) has managed to develop a new technique for gene editing that has partially restored vision to blind mice . The San Antonio de Murcia Catholic University, the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the Clínica Cemtro de Madrid have collaborated in this study, among other institutions.
These scientists have discovered how to successfully insert DNA into a specific location in non-dividing cells – which make up the majority of adult organs and tissues – and modify damaged DNA.
The Spanish researcher Juan Carlos Izpisúa, from the Laboratory of Genetic Expression of the Salk Institute and main author of the article recently published in the journal Nature , explained in this regard: “We are very excited about the technology that we have discovered because it is something that could not be done before. make”. ” For the first time, we can enter non-dividing cells and modify DNA. The potential applications for this discovery are enormous,” he adds.
This new technique, according to the researchers, will open new avenues for basic research and will also involve the development of a wide variety of treatments . And not only for diseases that affect, for example, the retina, but also the heart and brain.
According to the scientists, the techniques used so far to modify DNA – such as the CRISPR-Cas9 system – have been more effective in dividing cells, such as those of the skin or the intestine . The new technique – baptized with the name HITI – is ten times more efficient, and, even more importantly, it has been applied for the first time in adult cells that no longer divide – such as those of the eye, pancreas or heart. , so it offers new possibilities to treat these cells on a therapeutic level.
