Chapter 136: The angel for hundreds of millions of sick people around the world, the deified Lin Feng!

This knowledge is mainly divided into four parts, the first part is the part of detecting and assessing risks.

Among them, the knowledge of the new GOTI off-target detection technology invented by Professor Zuo Wei in 2019 in his previous life was directly instilled into Lin Feng's mind.

From now on, Xingtu Gene Company can easily detect and evaluate the probability of off-target gene editing, which directly improves the safety and risk of gene editing technology.

After this comes the second part, which is the whole body cell gene editing part.

There are currently three methods in the world for editing genes in cells throughout the body.

The first method is to use plasmid transfection to construct a plasmid expressing sgRNA, crRNA and cas9 protein, and then transfect the plasmid into the cells.

This is the original invention and the simplest method, but its chimera efficiency is also the lowest.

It is difficult to apply it to the huge number of cells in the body of an adult, so even gene editing can only modify the genes of a small number of cells in the body.

Therefore, this method has been eliminated, and its only use is in conjunction with cloning technology.

After all, cloning technology itself starts from the division and development of a cell into an adult, so the low chimerism rate does not affect anything.

As for the second method, it is the viral transformation method, which is also the mainstream gene editing method currently being studied by major scientific research institutions.

This viral transformation method is to edit the viral genes and integrate sgRNA, crRNA and the sequence expressing cas9 protein into the virus.

The goal is to allow the virus to break into and infect cells throughout the adult's body, and edit and modify the genes of cells throughout the body.

That is, first knock out the specified gene fragment, then knock in the edited gene, and finally use specific viruses or drugs to eliminate the virus in the body, ultimately achieving the purpose of gene editing.

The advantage of this method is that as long as a virus is edited, the virus can be allowed to grow and develop on its own, and ultimately both the production cost and the medical cost will be very low.

However, the fatal flaw of this method is that it causes severe immune rejection reactions, which can cause simultaneous colds, fevers, pain and other immune response phenomena, and can cause sudden death if one is not careful.

The previous EBT-001 gene therapy drug used this method, and the accidental deaths of some monkeys also proved the dangers of the viral transformation method.

In addition, this viral transformation method has a certain off-target risk, which may cause the edited virus to randomly knock out normal genes and eventually transform into cancer cells with a certain probability.

In addition, there is actually a hidden flaw, which is when the virus breaks through the human cell defense.

Nature will produce a large number of corresponding gene fragments, and these gene fragments will exist in the cell for a long time, floating around in a disorderly manner for a long time, and no one knows whether some unknown things will happen.

So in the long run, there will naturally be unknown hidden dangers. So although this method is quick, it is actually quite dangerous.

The third method for editing genes in cells throughout the body is the ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex introduction method.

The so-called RNP complex introduction method is to form an RNP complex with sgRNA, crRNA and purified cas9 protein in vitro.

The RNP complex is then introduced into the cell via liposomes or electroporation to complete the editing of the cell genes.

The advantage is that the RNP complex that enters the cell body can directly perform its function without going through the transcription and translation process.

In addition, because it exists for a relatively short time, it will automatically degrade within 24 hours, which directly reduces the risk of off-target and unknown hidden dangers and directly improves safety.

Therefore, in the past life, genetic medical products that officially underwent clinical trials in 2024 usually used the NP complex introduction method.

This technology also has two disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that the design and manufacturing cost of the RNP complex is extremely high, which ultimately leads to the problem that the treatment price cannot be reduced.

The second disadvantage is that the manufactured genetic medical drugs must be used immediately as soon as possible.

Otherwise, due to the inherent defects of the RNP complex, it will automatically degrade into useless waste over time.

Of course, the fact that the products must be used as soon as possible after manufacturing is not a big problem. The patients can just come to the area near the factory for treatment.

This will actually boost the economy of Xiaohe Town, Liancheng, Zhancheng and other areas. It is actually not a disadvantage but an advantage.

Therefore, there is only one real disadvantage that is a headache, and that is the extremely high manufacturing cost.

After all, the traditional viral transformation method only requires editing one virus, and then the edited virus will reproduce on its own, so that "gene therapy drugs" can be produced continuously and at low cost.

The only way to produce RNP complex is through chemical synthesis.

Any error in temperature, jitter, pressure difference, etc. may lead to failure of chemical synthesis.

This requires extremely high control precision, as well as precise chemical coupling and base pairing technology. It can be said that it is a disaster to produce this.

But this disaster is for others, but it is nothing for Xingtu Genetics, which has artificial intelligence Jarvis that can control production equipment for automatic production. Therefore, this method is actually the most suitable for Xingtu Genetics, with high editing efficiency, safety, few hidden dangers, and no huge immune response.

Finally, the extremely high difficulty of chemical production prevents most of the less capable plagiarists from copying the RNP complex even if they want to.

As for companies that have the ability to produce, they dare not produce on a large scale. After all, they must be afraid that Xingtu Gene Company will sue them for patent infringement and then make them lose all their money.

It can be said that this extremely difficult to manufacture RNP complex is a disaster for the copycat pharmaceutical factories in India.

Even if the copycat pharmaceutical companies in India wanted to copy his RNP complex, they couldn't do it. This unique situation would naturally make Xingtu Gene Company earn a lot of money!
Of course, according to the knowledge Lin Feng has in his mind, this CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology has not been completed.

After the systemic cell gene editing part comes the part of reducing the immune response and the auxiliary part of how to introduce the RNP complex.

So the knowledge Lin Feng acquired at this time consists of four major parts, which complement each other.

When the four are combined, the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology is successfully put into practical use.

From then on, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology became truly practical.

Not only can it knock out a certain gene fragment in the human body, but it can also knock the newly edited gene fragment into its original location!

This also means that from now on, Lin Feng can not only use this method to solve the SIV monkey immunodeficiency virus, but also the human AIDS virus.

Including other hepatitis B viruses, herpes simplex viruses, and other genetic diseases caused by gene defects.

A series of genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, hereditary deafness, thalassemia, leukemia, etc. can be treated.

Those are other non-genetic diseases, such as immune system diseases and nervous system diseases.

Even other diseases such as AIDS, diabetes and even cancer may be suppressed and treated.

After all, so-called cancer is nothing more than the disorder of cell gene mutation and unnatural crazy proliferation.

As a result, humans are forced to remove or injure cancerous cell tissues, until one day they can no longer be suppressed and die suddenly.

But now with CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, it is entirely possible to target specific gene fragments in cancer cells, kill off the gene fragments, and inactivate the genome.

Even modify the erroneous gene fragment to restore it to a normal state, thereby causing the cancerous cells to return to a normal cell state.

These are all possible in theory, but of course to achieve this requires a large number of scientific researchers to conduct research.

Because of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology that Lin Feng has currently obtained, it can only knock out a certain gene fragment in the genes of cells throughout the body.

The artificially edited gene fragment is then knocked into the original location to complete gene editing.

Among these, it is relatively easy to directly knock out the gene fragments of cancerous cells, thereby causing the cells to become inactivated and die.

However, after knocking out the abnormal gene fragment, it is more difficult to knock in the normal gene fragment to restore the cell to normal.

After all, who knows what the patient's normal gene fragments look like.

Moreover, it is easy to damage but difficult to repair. The difficulty of doing this is much greater than the difficulty of destroying abnormal gene fragments.

Of course, although it is difficult, we have to admit that it is possible to achieve it to a certain extent. After all, Xingtu Gene Company has the artificial intelligence Jarvis.

It is difficult for humans to analyze huge amounts of genomic data and then infer what normal gene fragments look like.

This does not mean that AI Jarvis cannot analyze genomic data and then infer what a normal gene fragment looks like.

Finally, the normal gene fragment is knocked into the cell gene, thereby restoring the cell to a normal cell.

Of course, these are things of the future. It will take time to cure those diseases.

After all, you have to conduct clinical trials before that, and finally go through a whole set of processes from project development to clinical trials.

It will definitely take a year, but it may also take two or even three years.

Everything depends on how difficult it is to develop the medical technology, and how quickly the clinical trials are approved.

Nodding with satisfaction, Lin Feng picked up a test tube labeled "First Generation Gene Enhancement Agent" with a thoughtful expression in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)