Doctors use gene-editing to try and cure blindness for the very first time

• Doctors are using CRISPR technology to try and cure blindness in patients who have Leber congenital amaurosis.
  
• The team estimates that it will take up to a month to determine whether or not the treatment is working.
  
• If the attempt is successful, they plan to test it on 18 other children and adults.
  

Gene-editing CRISPR technology can be used for a lot of things — from customising babies to creating glow-in-the-dark cats. Now, for the first time ever, doctors are attempting to cure blindness with CRISPR DNA.

Three droplets of the fluid were injected directly into a patient’s eyeball by Oregon Health and Science Institute team, according to an AP report. The doctors are hoping that the DNA fragments will be enough to gene hack blindness and reverse Leber congenital amaurosis — a rare genetic condition, which causes blindness in early childhood.

It’s too early to determine whether the treatment is working or not. The doctors estimate that it will take up to a month for the results to reflect.

If the first few attempts of the treatment are successful, the team plans to test the CRISPR technology on 18 other children and adults.

Curing blindness
Some genetic conditions can be treated with conventional gene therapy, however, the gene for Leber congenital amaurosis is too large to replace. This makes it ideal for CRISPR testing since there is no other option on the table.

“We think it could open up a whole new set of medicines to go in and change your DNA,” Charles Albright, the chief scientific officer at Editas Medicine — one of the biotech companies that helped develop the treatment — told AP.

What is CRISPR?
CRISPR is a way to edit DNA, the genetic code that makes us who we are. The technique has been credited with the potential to cure genetic defects and eradicate diseases. It could even be the frontier to end organ transplant shortage.

However the technology is controversial as it could be used to create ‘designer babies’ — a fleet of newborns with genes that have been carefully selected to make them stronger, smarter and more beautiful.

In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui claimed responsibility for the first two gene-edited babies in the world. However, he was sentenced to three years in prison in 2019 after the courts ruled that Jiankui and his colleagues crossed an ethical line by using CRISPR gene-editing technology on embryos to make them resistant to HIV.

If used for nefarious objectives, CRISPR can also be used to unleash genetic mutations in the world. They would have the potential to spread like wildfire and the results would be permanent.

For example, some experts have suggested using the technology to prevent mosquitoes from spreading malaria. However, changing one line of the genetic code could result in unprecedented consequences that could possibly wipe another species or an entire ecosystem.

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