If there is a common enemy to humanity, a threat that hangs over everyone and that we all want to eliminate, It’s definitely cancer. I do not of course mean to minimize the importance of other diseases, but as a result of a number of conditions, some positive (e.g. increased life expectancy) and others negative (e.g. more aspects of the current lifestyle), cancer has become, over the decades, a source of suffering that does not understand nationalities , gender, ideologies, etc.

So there are countless studies that are being done all the time, in finding and capturing any technique that allows one to counter this disease or to be more precise, the vast array of diseases that are grouped under this common name, and any progress in any line of research is undoubtedly something to be celebrated. And if there is a technique that has been aiming to play a key role in this for years, it is undoubtedly CRISPR.

We already told you about it for the first time in 2015, when a team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts started working with this technique, and here we tell you how CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing opened the door to amazing breakthroughs. At the beginning of 2020, a project based on gene editing was approved for the first time in Spain, and at the end of last year we learned about a promising project of modified cells using CRISPR/Cas9 in the fight against cancer.

A key element in the fight against cancer is early detection, and today we know of significant progress in this regard, as a group of researchers has achieved modify bacteria to detect cancer cells. And it is that there are certain variants of this disease that are difficult to detect, such as colorectal disease, which usually means that they are diagnosed later, making treatment much more difficult or, in many cases, not possible. longer viable.

The technique that the researchers successfully tested is called CATCH (Cellular Assay for CRISPR Discriminated Horizontal Gene Transfer) and is based on the use of the bacterium Acinetobacter baylyiwhich has the ability to naturally absorb floating DNA from its environment and then integrate it into its own genome, allowing it to produce new proteins for growth.

for exam the bacterial KRAS gene was modified using CRISPR/Cas9Thanks to this, he is able to identify the mutation of the mentioned gene, which is common in colorectal cancer. The bacterium thus becomes a marker that allows its presence to be located quickly without the need to perform intrusive procedures, which significantly speeds up the speed of detection and response.

This experiment is only the first step, the technique is not yet ready for use in humans, but it represents an important advance that, as I said before, should be celebrated.

More information: Science