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Can CRISPR antibiotics replace antibiotics?
2017-04-20
来源：亚科官网
20 April 2017
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Antibiotics is an important medical resource in the world, not only to provide security, but also to save lives, which has made a number of important achivements in the field of public health. However, the abuse of antibiotics led to the emergence and widespread spread of drug-resistant bacteria. Recently, scientists are developing a "CRISPR pill" that can ultra-accurately kill harmful bacteria, such as Clostridium difficile.
Clostridium difficile is a picky, Gram-positive, spore-production anaerobic bacteria that can cause fatal infections in hospitals and care facilities, and the US CDC lists it in the top of "America's most urgent drug-resistant threat list". With the emergence of highly toxic strains in North American and European, the effects of Clostridium difficile have extended to community populations and young people in the developing world, even those who have not previously been exposed to antibiotics. At present, the bacterial resistance situation has been very grim, the bacterial resistance rate is rising, the vast majority of "super bacteria" that antimicrobial drugs can not kill have also debuted, the health of all mankind are confronted with a serious threat.
While calling for the rational use of antibiotics, scientists also develop new antibiotics and treatment to solve drug resistance. Scientists are currently developing ultra-precise "CRISPR drugs" to kill target harmful bacteria.
CRISPR is a powerful gene editing technique that is actually found in bacteria. Bacteria can use the "restriction endonuclease" to cut the virus DNA, to achieve self-protection. After "dealing with" a virus, it could "capture" a DNA fragment from virus, then insert it into their own DNA. When the next encounter with the same virus invasion, the bacteria can quickly cut their DNA after the comparison. In short, CRISPR is a more flexible "adjustable molecular scissors" that can identify many different sites and cut DNA.
In the latest study, scientists developed phage that could carry specific CRISPR information, and send out a false message to Clostridium difficile to induce fatal cloning for its DNA. Researchers plan to use probiotics complex to encapsulate phages to make oral pills or liquids. When the outer probiotics is degraded by gastric acid, the phage will infect the surrounding Clostridium difficile and induce self-destruction by specific CRISPR sequence. However, it is still in the early stages of development, and has not yet carried out animal experiments.
The biggest advantage of CRISPR antimicrobials is the ability to kill target bacteria precisely, rather than killing pathogens and destroying probiotics, which provides a new approach to dealing with drug-resistant bacteria that cause large-scale deadly infections. But because it is necessary to find the appropriate phage vector for a variety of pathogens, it is still too early to say that CRISPR antibiotics can completely replace the antibiotics.
Related links: China will strictly control the abuse of antibiotics?
Edited by the Editorial Office of Suzhou Yacoo Science Co., Ltd.
