Genetic therapy using CRISPR gene editing tool (CRISPR - Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) which splices genes is currently being much talked about, particularly in connection with the ability to treat many diseases. From some 'less significant' diseases like the sexually transmitted chlamydia to something more complex in every aspect, like genetically modified babies. While the debate on genetically modified babies will certainly continue, there will probably not much opposition to finding a Genetic Modification cure for some widespread diseases that could come through the current CRISPR research.
Could genetic modification come up with a solution for obesity and diabetes, two diseases that seem to be spreading like wildfire these days?
A solution for mice, is it for men?
A recent detailed CRISPR research on mice at the University of Chicago has come up with some very promising results when treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity are concerned. By applying skin grafts, the scientists at the University's Ben May Department for Cancer Research were able to design a mouse-to-mouse skin transplantation models. These transplants enable the diabetic mice to receive the insulin boost from those that have intact immune systems.
According to the recently published study, whose co-author is doctor Xiaoyang Wu, this is not a simple cure, "but a method to provide long-term, safe method of using skin cells to help people with diabetes maintain their glucose levels." What boosting insulin levels in the body also does is reduce weight, providing another, safer method of curing ever-spreading obesity.
According to University's researchers, this skin grafting approach cold at some point also be used in treating a variety of other metabolic and genetic conditions, by triggering different chemical reactions in the body.
Goodbye to needles (and pins)
The immediate benefits of such treatment is especially obvious for diabetes and pre-diabetes patients, as well as those people, burdened with excess weight.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 100 million U.S. adults have either diabetes (30.3 million) or pre diabetes (84.1 million). For those patients that depend on the use of everyday use of insulin that could mean saying goodbye to stressful, painful use of insulin injections that also requires constant monitoring of the sugar blood levels.
Doctor Wu also predicts that this method can provide long-term and safe treatment of many diseases that could replace "missing proteins for people with a genetic defect, such as hemophilia."
The researchers base their optimism on the fact that skin progenitor cells have some unique advantages, making it suitable for Gene Therapy. The first is that the human skin is the largest and most accessible part of the body. The second is that it is easy to monitor and the transplanted skin can be removed quickly if a problem arises. Finally, skin cells rapidly proliferate and can be easily transplanted, while the procedure itself is safe, minimally invasive, and what is also important, inexpensive.
