{"id":90407,"date":"2019-05-07T16:07:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T23:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/crispr-used-in-human-trials-for-the-first-time-in-the-us"},"modified":"2019-05-07T16:07:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T23:07:49","slug":"crispr-used-in-human-trials-for-the-first-time-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/crispr-used-in-human-trials-for-the-first-time-in-the-us","title":{"rendered":"CRISPR Used in Human Trials for the First Time in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/crispr-used-in-human-trials-for-the-first-time-in-the-us2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here, doctors extract a patient\u2019s own T cells, a type of white blood cell that normally acts as the body\u2019s watcher against cancer and infection. Cancer cells eventually learn to evade T cells or disarm the troops\u2014while turning their own surrounding normal cells into cancerous ones, thus expanding their tumor legion.<\/p>\n<p>CAR-T uses gene therapy to recharge those beaten-down T cells. The UPenn study, for example, relies on a neutered HIV-like virus to deliver an artificial \u201ctracker\u201d protein into those cells. These designer trackers expertly hunt down a protein dubbed NY-ESO-1, which dot certain cancer cells\u2019 surface like a homing beacon.<\/p>\n<p>CRISPR amplifies the CAR-T effect: the team is using the gene editing tool to erase three different \u201cbrakes\u201d in T cells. Killing off the first two, TCR \u03b1 and TCR \u03b2, keeps the edited cells in check to prevent friendly autoimmune fire, and allows the added \u201ctracker proteins\u201d to thrive in large numbers. Wiping out the third, PD-1, prevents a phenomenon called T cell exhaustion. It\u2019s aptly named: here, tumor cells secrete molecules that literally shut down T cell activity, zapping away their killing power.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2019\/05\/02\/crispr-used-in-human-trials-for-the-first-time-in-the-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;\">Read more<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here, doctors extract a patient\u2019s own T cells, a type of white blood cell that normally acts as the body\u2019s watcher against cancer and infection. Cancer cells eventually learn to evade T cells or disarm the troops\u2014while turning their own surrounding normal cells into cancerous ones, thus expanding their tumor legion. CAR-T uses gene therapy [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}