Scientists crack the CRISPR code for precise human genome editing

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Potential for nearly error-free edits.

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How will this help for mental illness?

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happy birthday man
Edit oops i mean your one year with the community lol

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There have been studies in mice suggesting that mutations leading to mental illness, autism, developmental disabilities etc can be corrected even in adulthood.

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But it passes from
parent to child right?

So it’s in your dna, can you reverse that after the brain has developed and become many cells, or even after conception?

Do you have any info on if that’s possible?

And do we have any specific idea which genes cause it to develop?

Are we getting any closer?

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Presumably it would be more difficult after the brain has already developed, but there are possibilities for gene editing adult brains - one of them uses viral transfection to insert new genetic code. A harmless virus is used. There is also the possibility of using nanotech to insert the genetic correction.

It might be somewhat less effective in adults than in kids, but the idea is that if the underlying defect is corrected, natural brain plasticity will allow for repair.

I’ve got some articles, I’ll post links.

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Here’s the thing right, neurogenesis slows to a crawl at 25, so you’ve the same set of brain cells containing dna from then on.

So…are we hoping future gens will benefit, maybe not even sz but other rare genetic diseases like huntingtons etc?

I also realize we can synthetically grow new organs, but the brain isn’t necessarily damaged in sz, just structurally different.

Soooo…anything about triggering neurogenesis past 25, that sounds like away to keep ppl recovering as long as you ctrl it.

Issue is we don’t know how that will go, so like crispr the ethical concerns present a lot of yellow tape.

Any news abt the neurogenesis approach? Is it possible?

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https://www.nature.com/articles/tp201719

Schizophrenia-like phenotypes in mice with NMDA receptor ablation in intralaminar thalamic nucleus cells and gene therapy-based reversal in adults

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Since genes are the instruction manual for our bodies and brains, being able to alter them might be useful even in adulthood. There are some gene therapies for other disorders that are pretty far along and can be used in adulthood. Nothing for mental illness yet. But brain illness, yes (Parkinson’s, Huntington’s are coming along.)

Personally, I think a combination of stem cell and gene therapy may be plausible. If your own genetic code has errors which affect your stem cells, you would want those fixed, or a donor cell used, but with the tags for the body seeing it as foreign and rejecting it removed.

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Thanks I was looking for that one!

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