Abstract
From the existence of life to modern days, prokaryotes have had an immense influence in our knowledge and understanding of molecular mechanisms. For a long time scientists thought that the bacteria are incapable of raising adaptive immunity. Advancements in vector science revealed a novel feature or molecular machinery, CRISPR or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat of bacteria and archaea by which they display antiviral capabilities. These primitive but superefficient organisms were able to activate adaptive immunity by inactivating attacking viral DNA thereby interrupting its ability to proliferate in host body. These breakthrough studies led to a new era of using much more sophisticated gene editing tools which have inordinate scope for correcting genetic disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's, Parkinson's, hemophilia, β-thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, Duchene muscular dystrophy, Tay-Sachs, etc; autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, lupus and for treatments for different types of cancer as well as for treatments aimed at improving patient quality of life and prolonging lifespan. This review discusses briefly the history of discovery, mechanism of gene therapy utilizing lesson learnt from the molecular mechanism used by the bacteria and the bioethical issues centered around the use of CRISPR-Cas-9 technique.
Recommended Citation
Mukhopadhyay, Soma
(2024)
"CRISPR-Cas-9: A Recent Tool for Gene Editing A Review on Discovery and Application,"
American Journal of Applied Bio-Technology Research (AJABTR): Vol. 4, Article 4.
Available at:
https://research.smartsociety.org/ajabtr/vol4/iss2/4