Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), a disease that reared its head in the 1980s and has been the bane of both pigs and their farmers on a global scale ever since. Most vaccines have failed to cease the spread of the virus in which it continues to evolve rapidly. In addition to causing respiratory related illnesses, miscarriage and death among pigs, PRRSV infection is the causative agent of major economic losses to the world-wide swine industry. To curb this predicament, scientists are currently developing pigs that are resistant to PRRSV using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology.
CRISPR-Cas9 is a gene editing tool that enables scientists to perform alteration to parts of the genome. Initially discovered as a part of immune system for prokaryotic cells, CRISPR-Cas9 has been altered to edit genomes. It has stirred up excitement in the research community as CRISPR-Cas9 enables modification of gene function at a rapid pace in comparison to older methods of gene editing.
A team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh and biotech company, Genus have used the genome-editing tool CRISPRCas9 to incise a small section of the CD163 gene in the DNA code of swine. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
According to GEN, an online news portal, assays upon the edited cells from the pigs with the modified CD163 gene have confirmed that the genomic edit inhibits the capability of the PRRS virus to induce infection.
The researchers stated that the animals are healthy and the gene editing doesn’t affect their ability to combat other infections.
Quoting Senior investigator Dr Alan Archibald, head of the genetic and genomics division at the Roslin Institute within the University of Edinburgh: “Genome editing improves animal welfare by reducing the burden of diseases as well as providing opportunities to enhance food security via reduction of wastes and losses from infectious diseases.
“Our results take us closer to realising these benefits and specifically address the most important infectious disease problem for the pig industry worldwide.”
Dr Jonathan Lightner, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D for Genus, said that the results exhibited the importance of CD163 in PRRS virus infection and targeted removal of the viral interacting domain can confer resistance while the remainder of the protein is present.
Previous studies revealed that the PRRS virus target macrophages, particularly a molecular on their surface known as CD 163. This molecule plays a pivotal role in enabling the PRRS virus to induce an infection.
The results of this study were published in PLOS Pathogens.
[/ihc-hide-content]
