![\"Scientists](\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2020\/02\/human-trial-suggests-crispr-viable-cancer-treatment-300x158.jpg\")
<\/div>Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania just published the results of the first U.S. trial of CRISPR-edited cells in cancer patients — and they’re very encouraging.<\/p>
In April 2019, UPenn confirmed<\/a> that a team of its researchers had officially begun testing CRISPR-edited cells in humans.<\/p> For that trial, the scientists had removed immune cells from three patients with advanced, treatment-resistant cancers. They then used CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the cells in order to improve their ability to fight tumors before returning them to the patients’ bodies.<\/p> In November, the team shared the promising results<\/a> of their CRISPR trial online, noting that the edited cells were still detectable in the patients’ bodies and hadn’t produced any negative side effects.<\/p> However, the study had yet to undergo the peer-review process at that point. That meant the results were still only tentative prior to the study’s publication in the journal Science<\/em><\/a> on Thursday.<\/p> Because this was only a Phase 1 trial<\/a>, the researchers’ focus was on the safety of the treatment — not on its efficacy.<\/p> But as CRISPR inventor Jennifer Doudna pointed out in a Perspectives<\/em> essay<\/a> published alongside the study, knowing that CRISPR-edited cells won’t harm cancer patients is the first step to using those cells to treat the disease.<\/p> “Until now, it has been unknown whether CRISPR-Cas9-edited T cells would be tolerated and thrive once reinfused into a human,” Doudna wrote, later adding that the UPenn team’s findings “represent an important advance in the therapeutic application of gene editing and highlight the potential to accelerate development of cell-based therapies.”<\/p> The post Human Trial Suggests CRISPR Could Be a Viable Cancer Treatment<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> See more here: Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania just published the results of the first U.S. trial of CRISPR-edited cells in cancer patients \u2014 and they\u2019re very encouraging. In April 2019, UPenn confirmed that a team of its researchers had officially begun testing CRISPR-edited cells in humans. Continue reading
Human Trial Suggests CRISPR Could Be a Viable Cancer Treatment<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"