Chinese experts and scholars have made innovative breakthroughs in gene editing therapy research

Jan. 12 (Reporter Chen Jing) Viral corneitis is an inflammation caused by viral pathogenic cornea infection, which relapses easily after treatment and becomes the main cause of infectious blindness. The fact that the disease is neither available nor curable is troubling doctors and patients.
reporter learned on the 12th that Hong Jiaxu, an expert at Fudan University's affiliated Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, and Professor Cai Yuga of Shanghai Jiaoxuan University's Institute of Systems Biomedical Research have worked together to achieve breakthrough new results. They pioneered gene therapy delivery vectors, combining gene editing and delivery techniques. The treatment, called HELP, can cure viral corneitis by cutting the virus's genome and degrading it, while also removing viruses that lurk in the trigexual section.
Shi Weiyun, head of the corneal disease group of the ophthalmology branch of the Chinese Medical Association and
Of Shandong Ophthalmology Hospital, believes that the technology provides a new solution for the cure of viral cornealitis.
Hong Jiaxu told reporters in an interview, at present, the treatment of viral corneitis traditional drugs, such as axilove, or corneal transplantation, can only temporarily suppress the herpes virus, but can not remove the virus genome from the body. The virus travels retrogradely through the eye nerves to the Trident nerve section. There, they build a reservoir of viruses, and once reactivated, the disease relapses and worsens. For a long time, the direct degradation of the virus genome, from the root cause of the "removal" of latent viruses, is an expert and scholars to explore the problem.
it is understood that Chinese scholars in the field of gene editing therapy has made a major breakthrough, published in the internationally renowned academic journals Nature-Biomedical Engineering and Nature-Biotech. HELP technology solves the biggest technical "bottleneck" of gene editing therapy - delivery technology, which is expected to open up the "last kilometer" of gene editing treatment. At the same time, this new technology targets the genome of the virus, does not change the human gene, is safe, can minimize the risk of off-target, and avoid the immune response. Using HELP technology, virus replication on mouse infection models is effectively blocked, while the virus library lurking in nerve cells is removed, Cai said. The team is looking forward to this new treatment to help patients with refractic viral corneitis regain their light.
professor Yuan Jin, a guest commentator and deputy director of Zhongshan Eye Center at Sun Yat-sen University, told reporters that the use of gene editing in viral corneitis treatment to achieve the removal of viruses lurking in trigeminal nerves in animals is an innovative breakthrough from "0" to "1".
, many human health-related viral infections are not treatable, or even vaccines are available. HBV, HPV and other viruses although vaccines are available, but once infected there is still no drug can be achieved. Yuan Jin said that HELP, as a new antiviral therapy with clinical potential, will help the real arrival of gene editing therapy in the body, bringing new hope to patients with non-treatable, drug-resistant genetic and infectious diseases.
Fudan University Affiliated Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital is the only third-grade A-class A ear, nose and throat specialist hospital belonging to the National Health and Health Commission. Zhou
, director of the hospital, said the hospital combines medical, teaching and scientific research, and strives to overcome difficult problems. It is understood that about 70% of the hospital's patients from outside Shanghai all over the country, the proportion of patients with difficult disorders is high. At present, under the demonstration and permission of the Ethics
Conference of Fudan University Affiliated Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, Hong Jiaxu's team is conducting relevant clinical application research, which may be extended to the treatment of other genetic ophthalmological diseases in the future.