Fighting Genetic Diseases with Moths and Magnets

 

There are endless genetic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or even spinal muscular atrophy, where a cure is yet to be found. However, Gang Bao and his team of bioengineers at Rice University have developed a potential new gene therapy for these incurable genetic disease by utilizing moths and magnets. This new technology combines a virus that infects the North American moth, Autographa californica, and nanoparticles to potentially repair the mutations that cause genetic diseases. The moth infecting virus is crucial in this experimental research for it serves as a carrier for CRISPR/Cas9, which is an system consisting of an enzyme and piece of RNA that is often used as a genome editing tool. The magnetic field works to manipulate gene expression of the virus, which is normally inactive in blood, in the targeted tissues. Nevertheless, the main challenge to their work was finding a process in which CRISPR/Cas9 can be delivered to the target area with high efficiency. When working to solve this roadblock, the team had to ensure that only the target area was affected because altering the DNA of other tissues or organs could be detrimental.

    Bao’s group developed a way around this problem by specifically choosing the moth-infecting virus. This virus contains cylindrical baculovirus vector (BV), which is the part of the virus that acts as a unit to carry the CRISPR/Cas9. The BV is able to transport the CRISPR/Cas9 to the target site since there naturally exists a protein (C3) which inactivates the BV. Once the BV reaches the site of interest, a magnetic field is applied and is then able to overcome the deactivation caused by C3. Thus, the CRISPR/Cas9 can then serve its purpose of repairing the mutations that give rise to the genetic diseases.

   I feel as if this work is important to the scientific community’s understanding of incurable diseases even if it does not end up being the be all end all answer to stopping the diseases entirely. This work will definitely contribute in enhancing gene therapies and at least reduce the side effects of the disease while making life on those facing these challenges easier. Personally, the most interesting aspect of article was that during the testing process the team had used Green Fluorescent Proteins (GFP) to determine if the use of magnets contributed to increasing delivery efficiency of BV to the target site. Since students have been working with GFP in the laboratory, it was a nice to see how work done within the weekly labs can be related to groundbreaking work done out in the field.

Resources:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181113110359.htm

The Pepper Moth: Decoded

The black peppered moth, a famous example of adaptive evolution, recently had a major breakthrough in what exactly helped it change form pepper to black.  Back in the 1800's, during England's industrial revolution, this moth adapted to its newfound, soot covered environment, by becoming darker, allowing it to blend in with the newly soot covered trees.  This adaptation allowed for the darker moths to pass down their genes, and become the new wild type.
Recently it was discovered that this change was all due to a gene called "cortex", which in most organisms codes for the function of cell division.  In moths, and butterflies, cortex was seen to code for wing and scale color.  This is not the beginning of this abnormality.  This gene is also known as a jumping gene, meaning that it can be found on different places all over the genome.  Dr. Saccheri, an evolutionary ecologist, describes it as "[a] huge chunk of DNA that doesn't itself code for anything, but somehow disrupts the nature of a gene".

The fact that these moths and butterflies of the like use a gene that normally codes for cell division in order to code for something as simple as wing color.  Also the fact that it is conveniently a jumping gene just adds to the strangeness of it's expression in the moth/butterfly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/science/moths-butterflies-dna-cortex-genes.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ftrilobites 

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7605/full/nature17951.html 

Parasites Alter Butterfly Genomes Using Viruses

Genetically modified organisms (GMO's) are usually known as a creation of human, but insect studies show otherwise. Researchers have found modified genetics in butterflies and moths, but they weren't caused from humans. These modified genetics were caused by a virus that weaves through DNA. Parasitic insects known as braconid wasps lay eggs inside of caterpillars and hatch into larvae. The wasps also inject bracoviruses that incorporate themselves into the genome of caterpillars. These modifications will be passed on to other generations. Scientists believe that some butterflies and moths have kept these wasp genes because they protect against other viruses that could be harmful. Scientists also believe that insects that are genetically modified by humans have the potential to transfer to other insects, and therefore we must be fully aware of what genes are modified.

This article was very interesting to read. I am on the fence about genetically modified organisms, and when I found out that insects that are genetically modified by humans have the potential to spread those modified genetics to other insects, it pushed me even further away from GMO's. What was also very interesting is that the wasp virus can completely change the genome of a caterpillar, and that genome is passed on to other generations. This is the first time I've heard of naturally occurring GMO's.

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