Researchers from Eligo Bioscience in Paris have developed and tested a gene-editing method that can be used to edit the genes of bacteria living in the gut of mice. nature.
The widely used CRISPR-Cas gene-editing system has been used by many research groups to destroy unwanted gut bacteria. Xavier Duportet and his colleagues were looking for a way to modify the gut flora in a way that would keep the bacteria alive. The base editor they used was able to replace nucleotides, the individual letters of the biological code, without breaking strands of DNA.
The new method was successful in genetically modifying more than 90 percent of the E. coli bacteria living in laboratory animals. The scientists used their own vector—that is, the base editor was delivered by a virus that specializes in bacteria, called bacteriophages—and they were also able to prevent the virus from replicating and spreading.
During the experiment, the researchers modified the production of beta-lactamase, an enzyme that plays a key role in antibiotic resistance. The genes of 93 percent of the bacteria in the animals' digestive tracts were overwritten within eight hours of treatment.
In the next experiment, they targeted a protein implicated in neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases. After three weeks of treatment, the modified bacteria in the test animals was 70 percent.
According to Chase Beisel, a chemical engineer at the Heimlotz Institute in Würzburg, who researches RNA-based pathogens, the French result represents a crucial advance.
Opens the possibility of treating microbes by freeing them while preventing the spread of modified DNA.
Duportet and his team will then study how microbiome editing affects the health of model animals.
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