Crispr: Chinese scientists to pioneer gene-editing trial on humans

According to a news report in Nature, scientists at Sichuan University’s West China Hospital are on track to initiate a clinical trial that will administer CRISPR-Cas9-edited immune cells in patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Another team of Chinese researchers, in Guangzhou, have already done an experiment editing the genes of (non-viable) human embryos; in December, a number of the world’s leading researchers met in Washington, D.C.to discuss the ethics behind using CRISPR on humans.

Since 2012 when researchers first realized its capacity for gene editing, CRISPR has been at the center of heated debate among scientists and bioethicists. “They plan to edit genes in such a way as to turn off a gene that encodes for a protein that has been shown by prior research to slow an immune response and by so doing treat patients with lung cancer”. Many cancer cells also express this standard PD-L1 marker as a defensive mechanism to prevent the body’s T-cells from attacking them.

According to Nature, the Chinese trial will involve lung cancer patients for whom chemotherapy, radiation therapy and other treatments have failed. Lu said that his team is experienced in treating cancer patients.

“All the T-cells – everything will be active”, says Chan. The first stage of the trial next month will examine three different dosage regimens on 10 people, monitoring closely for side effects.

The clinical trial will use antibody therapies validated by the global scientific community, which would regulate the autoimmune response.

It may be banned in the United Kingdom, but DNA editing technology will begin trials on humans in China next month in the hope of curing lung cancer.

And it’s not much of a surprise China wanted to get a jump on human CRISPR experimentation; it’s first in this area pretty regularly. In this earlier study, they worked with HIV patients. The National Institutes of Health approved that project last month, Nature reported at the time, but it still needs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a university review board to sign off. U.S. researchers said they expect that trial could begin by the end of 2016.

CRISPR Cas9 is also set for a US trial in which researchers will attempt to knock out two genes and insert a third before the cells are re-introduced.