Dolly Eggs responsible for lab-grown bird flu-resistant chickens – Executive Digest

The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh is the laboratory that created the famous cloned egg “Dolly”. The laboratory used gene editing to create chickens that are resistant to infection by the avian influenza virus (H5N1). Discovering it will allow you to overcome the difficulties of developing a vaccine because the virus is able to rapidly change the proteins on its surface that are rebuilt by the immune system.

In the study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers tested the potential of modifying small portions of chicken DNA to prevent, even if only partially, influenza infection.

Influenza A requires a protein in chicken cells, ANP32A, to replicate, and scientists led by Mike McGrew will use CRIP gene-editing technology to modify the gene that produces this protein in chicken cells so that the change is spread to future generations.

Therefore, for those animals that did not contract the flu when exposed to other infected birds (only 1 in 10 infected birds), they could not later infect other chickens. Our testicles received a thousand times higher dose, and five out of ten testicles became infected.

Altogether, scientists believe the virus adapted to “transformation” and began to use other proteins from the same family to continue replicating and spreading, thereby reducing efficiency.

It was found that it would be able to solve problems caused by viruses, which can infect humans, but further investigation is needed. “This doesn’t mean it can infect humans, but we have to be careful not to promote the virus to adapt and become more dangerous,” said Wendy Barclay, a researcher at Imperial College London and co-author of the paper, referring to It is the adaptability of the virus after the ANP32A protein is removed.

In addition, editing two other genes to spread the virus in the eggs of both animals had other effects, such as having some “effect” on chicken growth. The authors believe that this version had collateral effects on the health of both animals, such as problems with development, fertility or protection against other diseases, but they also stress that the goal was achieved: proving that the concept can protect against avian influenza infection.