BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: tissue

Using CRISPR to Prevent Chronic Pain & Inflammation

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Researchers at the University of Utah have recently figured out a way to use CRISPR gene-editing techniques to reduce chronic pain and inflammation.

Normally, inflammation around damaged tissue signals various cells to produce molecules that destroy the damaged tissue. However, this can quickly devolve into chronic pain when the tissue destruction does not stop.

The researchers have found a way to use CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat) to relieve and prevent chronic pain. Unlike most popular CRISPR techniques, theirs does not involve altering the gene sequences– it instead relies upon epigenetics, and modifying the expression of the genes in the cytokine receptors in inflammatory areas, to prevent cells from producing the molecules that destroy tissue.

The treatment is delivered through a virus, which is injected into the inflammatory site. It is more potentially therapeutic than current treatments for chronic pain, in that it actually prevents tissue destruction and future pain, rather than just relieving present pain. The method is approximately ten years away from being used to treat human patients.

Biologists grow real human muscle

Scientists at Duke University recently announced that they have successfully bioengineered a human muscle that expands and contracts just like the real thing. Scientists see vast opportunities for this new advancement. It could become a powerful tool for studying diseases like muscular dystrophy. Not only could it help understand these diseases, but the engineered muscle could help scientists develop drugs to treat these diseases without the need to test on human beings. Dr. Grace Pavlath, senior vice-president and scientific program director for the Muscular Dystrophy Association,  says that the discovery will most benefit from testing cures to diseases without the risk of human life.

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To create the muscle, the scientists extracted special muscle “precursor” cells from human bodies and then multiplied then up to 1,000 times. Then they mixed the cells with a special gel and placed it in a 3d mold, which stimulated the growth of this muscle. When they stimulated the muscle with electric shocks and a number of different drugs, the scientists were delighted to find that the muscle reacted just like human tissue would, contracting and expanding as the impulses hit the muscle. This breakthrough holds large implications for improving research and testing of cures to many muscular diseases.

 

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/lab-grown-muscle-first-contracting_n_6471398.html?utm_hp_ref=science

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