Recently, CRISPR has been incorporated in the health sector as one of the fundamental gene-editing tools. Most scientists, especially in the biotechnology industry, have gained much respect for using the technology on patients due to its efficient performance, its relatively low price, and its effectiveness.
Pros:
1. Treats genetic disorder; it is estimated that genetic disease usually affects almost 10% of the united states population, the good news is that the disorder can be treated by administering CRISPR technology. The faulty genetics can be fixed through gene therapy, where the cells are being replaced.
2. It offers hope to patients; since there is a lot of fatality rate among the newborns in the United States resulting from the disorder, by using the technology, their hopes can be restored.
3. It is likely to create a new medicine field; currently, there are several gene-related disorders witnessed in the world. Gene-editing proves to be the most suitable field of medicine to be employed to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s through therapeutic genetic research.
4. The whole process is based on technology; for this reason, technological advancement in the field may tend to lower the cost of therapy, making it affordable for every patient. Also, the automation of the system is likely to eliminate human cause errors during the treatment. Though the initial surgery may prove to be expensive, with time, the rates tend to decrease.
5. CRISPR treatment is not limited to humans only; the procedure can be administered in veterinary science as well. These make it possible to save the lives of animals with a gene disorder.
6. Easy to change targets areas: When you begin using the technique, it may involve several attempts to get the protocol right and optimize as per the requirements. But once you get it right then, you can make your changes as per your choice of editing the alternative genomes that need to be targeted. You can now design new RNAs and place these designs in the new system. This was very well executed when there was a necessity for the cancer cell lines to be chopped out of 18,000 genes.
7. A lot of published material on this technique: The CRISPR method has gained a lot of popularity over the years. And its effectiveness has led to a lot of publications suggesting the number of successful outcomes of the process. There are now thousands of laboratories all over the world working on genome editing using this technique, and scientists have been effectively changing so many lives utilizing this procedure.
It gives a chance to properly utilize the workings of the genes and the genetic areas with the help of a genome editing tool that is widely being used in this field.
8. Inexpensive method: Using CRISPER, the editing of the gene is now much more accessible and cheap as well. You have to have
Cas9
Guide RNA expressions vectors
Primers to synthesize the vectors
Required reagents
Cell culture facilities
Cloning equipment
Cells
Media
Transfection reagents
All of the above will be found in the genetics lab. The researcher will have to follow the procedure and get the genome editing job done
9. Genetic errors can be corrected: The defective genes that cause many painful ailments can now be successfully targeted and eliminated from the genome so that the next generation will not carry the defective genes and suffer the consequences. The potential chance of acquiring the disease is brought down by using this method, especially during the embryo stage. This method allows us to bring down heritable ailments.
10. Get rid of microbes that spread disease: The editing will help to stop the virus or the bacteria from duplicating itself. This way, they are limited to spreading and causing further damage to the body. They can effectively be treated with medication to get rid of the small number and eliminate it from the body. The rapid multiplication of bacteria and viruses is a troubling area for scientists and to curtail their expansion, using the CRISPR tool has been useful but yet to be applied to human infections.
11. Resurrect species that have become extinct: Many of the species that would have vanished from the surface of planet earth due to various reasons can now be known in detail. The DNA that is found in the remains, in terms of bones, can help scientists to put the species together by reconstruction of the DNA and perhaps bring back to life that once was existing. With the help of CRISPR Cas9 technology, many things could be possible.
12. Cultivate healthier food: Disease resistance and being able to infuse more nutrients into fruits and vegetables is the direction for research. Agricultural technology is looking at genetically modified organisms to enable better qualities into the crops by using gene-editing techniques. This allows better yield and helps cut down losses through disease and other plant infections.
13. Eliminate mosquito menace: The CRISPR Cas9 can help get rid of the dreaded mosquito which is known to spread so many diseases in humans and animals some of which are
Malaria
Filaria
Dengue
Chikungunya
Swine flu
Yellow fever
Many more
Scientists can now use it to modify the genetic trait and impair the vision and flight of the mosquito, thus reducing its ability to spread infectious disease.
14 Finding out how medications work: When patients are given, the doctors need to know how they work, for that CRISPR Cas9 technique works great to find out and know which target cells get the medication. This is done by fluorescent tagging, and it will help to understand how the cell gets stimulated to test the effect of the drugs.
15 Animal testing could be replaced: With the help of CRISPR Cas9, you can now use organoids to check out every potential drug or formulation to see how it would work before directly implementing it on a living being. The ethical treatment for animals isn’t usually considered when testing. Hence a new alternative can bring in some changes.
Cons:
1. The treatment is costly; currently, the procedure can be administered depending on the socio-economic class to which one belongs; here is where the wealthy people enjoy the privilege. On the contrary, there are a lot of people who cannot afford to pay for genetic editing due to its initial cost.
2. It seems to be unethical; typically, manipulating the genetic orientation or profile is one of the wrong issues encountered in the health sector. These treatments can lead to future genetic alterations among children. For this reason, it can create a different human standard, which may not be desirable in society.
3. It can adapt to nature; it is just a matter of time before the treatment adapts to the environment; when such happen, the unforeseen disorder in the genetics profile may emerge. When genes are manipulated in the human body, the likelihood of creating unknown complications is very high.
4. The treatment may lead to gene doping; based on the advancing technology in the world today, gene doping is possible, and scientists can do anything to manipulate the genes. For instance, gene doping may be adopted to equalize athletics through gene therapy done on them.
5. It may give false hope, though to some extent it can be trusted to cure or alter the genetic profile for the better, one cannot depend on it entirely. This is a technology, and anything can happen, so people should not fully trust its success.
6. Complete setup from beginning utilizes considerable time: Very few genetic labs have the identified genome-editing pipeline for CRISPR Cas9, and you have to use a different approach such as BiteSize Bio article to follow your technique of editing. Some may find the tool challenging and taking up a lot of time. Still, the persistence of learning how to use it efficiently and with the help of tutorials is an incredibly useful technique to learn and make use of in research concerning genome editing.
7. Not very efficient every time: If you aren’t so well versed in the editing process, then it can cause a lot of inconsistencies in your genome editing task. Three may be several factors attached to not translating the needed results, but it hinders your percentage of cells that have to be successfully edited in order to get you the editing efficiency, which will definitely be less than 100%. It will spell disaster for your project as you haven’t achieved the needed score from the experiment conducted. It shows that you have to work on your results and their interpretation in a careful way. Even a slight oversight can affect the unedited cells in the vessel.
The population of the cells is often chosen through their Cas9 expression vector which is then transfected, but these have their own preconditions such as the cells chosen may not behave in a certain way when exposed to antibiotics. The cells sometimes may not readily divide or expand during culture, and the researcher has to make do with the cells that are present for the experiment. The researcher has to see then that he can bring out the results with an optimized approach during the editing process.
8. The effects may not hit the target: When the researcher has worked on getting the RNAs to an allotted target form, a particular genetic area that was prescribed, it is done after cross-checking the sequence that is chosen, which isn’t the same. The CRISPR has to be cut at a particular site and using this tool. You can exactly pick the right spot to place. If you happen to go off target, you can create mutations that are unwarranted modifications. This change can affect other genes randomly. Off-target consequences are hazardous. In order to reduce the mistakes that can occur without enough practice, there is a modified version of Cas9 that is available that will help to create just a nick in one strand and not two together so that you can amend the changes a little and are known as Cas9 nickase.
9. Ethical reasons come in the way: Using gene modification in human embryos isn’t acceptable in most countries in the world. Creating ‘designer babies’ as they are called isn’t the right moral practice is what is being debated, and the right to interfere with nature is the billion-dollar question.
10 There may be genetic defects: When you are removing some defects, you may end up altering the genome, and it may not be right, and mutated genes may not work efficiently and perhaps create new kinds of problems.
11 May create more dangerous pathogens: The genome editing may strip the dangerous quality of the gene in the process. The pathogen may get resistant and become capable of generating a new kind of disease or any other kind of harm that is not anticipated.
12 The danger in losing nutritional value: The genetically modified gene in foods also allows us to grow the crop in a couple of weeks in place of months; the speed of growth can hinder the nutritional value of the fruits and vegetables.
13 There are concerns: The greed of humans can exploit this technique to create more dangerous creatures and perhaps create a world dominated by a few powerful citizens who have the power to change the constitution of man as they want. It may all sound sci-fi as of now, but power does corrupt, and the power such as the ability to change how humans or creatures to be can really be overwhelming.
14. New kinds of side effects: When scientists are trying to counter the problems by editing the genes, they may unknowingly lead to unprecedented side effects. This is because everything is interlinked. Editing is all about chopping and joining something else if the combo doesn’t work well, you have a new problem on your hands.
15. Unacceptable diversity: The changes in the gene that make something cannot blend and perhaps cannot be the acceptable norm. Gene-editing hence is a taboo subject that needs to be dealt with carefully as everyone isn’t on board to allow gene editing to be accepted.
Conclusion:
You will find that there are ground-breaking advantages of using the CRISPR Cas9 tool for genome editing and how it can revolutionize the way disease and treatment of several fatal ailments can be ruled out of the human systems. The disadvantages may be few and far between, but it can be daunting but has several ethical concerns that need to be looked into and allow for potential finders to look forward to changing human life in several ways. Till then, it can be one of the frontline tools in the medical field to bring in changes for finding a cure to several incurable diseases.
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