Welcome back everyone! I hope you enjoyed your holiday and are looking forward to an exciting new year. My favorite thing about coming back from vacation is to see what cool new science was published. Because as you know, science doesn’t take a vacation!
As I was reading over the news for this past week, one particular story stood out. On New Year’s Eve, Science magazine published three articles (here, here, here) simultaneously that successfully used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to treat mice that have Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
DMD is a rare, genetic disease that affects approximately 1 in 3,600 boys in the US. It’s caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene, which generates a protein that is essential for normal muscle function. DMD causes the body’s muscles to weaken and degenerate, leaving patients deformed and unable to move. It’s a progressive disease, and the average life expectancy is around 25 years. Though there are treatments that help prolong or control the onset of symptoms, there is no cure for DMD.
Three studies use CRISPR to treat DMD in mice
For those suffering from this debilitating disease, there is hope for a new therapy – a gene therapy that is. Three groups from UT Southwestern, Harvard, and Duke, used the CRISPR gene editing method to remove and correct the mutation in the dystrophin gene in mice with DMD. All three used a safe viral delivery method to transport the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing complex to the proper location on the dystrophin gene in the mouse genome. There, the complex was able to cut out the mutated section of DNA and paste together a version of the gene that could produce a functional dystrophin protein.
Dystrophin protein (green) in healthy heart muscle (left), absent in DMD mice (center), and partially restored in DMD mice treated with CRISPR/Cas9 (right). (Nelson et al., 2015)
This technique was tested in newly born mice as well as in adult mice by injecting the virus into the mouse circulatory system (so that the gene editing could happen everywhere) or into specific areas like the leg muscle to target muscle cells and stem cells. After the gene editing treatment, all three studies found restored expression of the dystrophin protein in heart and skeletal muscle tissue, which are the main tissues affected in DMD. They were also able to measure improved muscle function and strength in the animals.
This is really exciting news for the DMD field, which has been waiting patiently for an approved therapy. Currently, two clinical trials are underway by BioMarin and Sarepta Therapeutics, but the future of these drugs is uncertain. A gene therapy that could offer a “one-time cure” would certainly be a more attractive option for these patients.
Charles Gersbach, Duke University
It’s important to note that none of these gene editing studies reported a complete cure. However, the results are still very promising. Charles Gersbach, senior author on the Duke study, commented, “There’s a ton of room for optimization of these approaches.”
Strong media coverage of DMD studies
The implications of these studies are potentially huge and suitably, these studies were covered by prominent news outlets like Science News, STAT News, The Scientist, and The New York Times.
What I like about the news coverage on the DMD studies is that the results and implications aren’t over hyped. All of the articles mention the promise of this research, but also mention that more work needs to be done in mice and larger animals before gene therapy can be applied to human DMD patients. The words “safe” or “safety” was used in each article, which signals to me that both the science and media worlds understand the importance of testing promising therapies rigorously before attempting in humans on a larger scale.
However, it does seem that CRISPR gene editing for DMD could reach clinical trials in the next few years. Charles Gersbach told STATnews that he could see human clinical trials using this technology in a few years after scientists properly test its safety. He also mentioned that they first will need to understand “how the human immune system will react to delivery of the CRISPR complex within the body.” He went on, “The hope for gene editing is that if we do this right, we will only need to do one treatment. This method, if proven safe, could be applied to patients in the foreseeable future.”
Eric Olson, UT Southwestern
Eric Olson, senior author on the UT Southwestern study, had a similar opinion, “To launch a clinical trial, we need to scale up, improve efficiency and assess safety. I think within a few years, those issues can be addressed.”
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