Scientists have published a new research result that will anger conspiracy theorists. Accordingly, the genetically modified virus achieved significant success in experiments conducted on mice. Researchers have been doing these experiments since 2020. However, for the first time, much more impressive results emerged. Here is the genetically modified virus research and its details.
Can genetically modified virus prevent diseases?
The researchers used mice with the virus that causes cold sores called herpesvirus-1 (HSV-1). Accordingly, in the research, scientists gave HSV-1 viruses produced by CRISPR, gene modification technology, to mice. Researchers added a marker fluorescent gene to these viruses to make them easier to track.
Thanks to this gene, researchers easily tracked genetically modified viruses in the body and reached interesting results. Accordingly, the virus produced with genetic modification technology can transform actual viruses. Although these viruses have the same characteristics as normal disease viruses, their disease-spreading properties are neutralized. Again, by adding a gene to the herpes virus, these scientists also ensured that the virus was protected from the body’s defense mechanism. Thus, the genetically modified virus could easily progress in the bodies of mice.
As a result, skin deformations caused by herpes disappeared. However, scientists are of the opinion that this technology is not yet at the level to be tested on humans. In this sense, more experiments will be conducted even for this virus and long-term results will be observed.
In this sense, virus genetic modification technology will begin to be tested in many more diseases. After experiments on mice, it is a matter of curiosity how it will work in other diseases.
In the research conducted three years ago, the first experiments were carried out on another version of the herpes virus. In these experiments, virologists Marius Walter and Eric Verdin from the Buck Institute for Aging Research proved that they could genetically change the virus.
Although it sounds scary, today’s basic vaccine technology works on injecting somehow inactive viruses into the body. In this method, scientists try a new way of fighting the disease by changing the genetics of the virus. Do you think this new genetic modification technology can change our lives? We are waiting your comments.
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