An Artificial Virus May One Day Cure the Deadliest Diseases We Know
Scientists continue to explore how gene therapy will open up new avenues to treating diseases that have stymied doctors for decades. Directly changing our DNA means that a full cure is possible for some of the rarest and most inscrutable afflictions known to humans.
One method of gene editing you may not have known about actually involves the participation of some of the most fearsome foes we’ve ever known: viruses. But these aren’t the kinds of viruses that infect healthy cells and plunge the world into global pandemics. In a new study published in Nature Communications on Tuesday, scientists have shown that it’s possible to modify a bacteria-killing virus—known as a phage—to deliver much more DNA to human cells than is possible through current gene editing techniques.
The result could mean that gene therapy treatments for diseases could be completed in a single step.