Scientists believe bird flu could jump to humans and become new pandemicso there’s a lot of research going on to combat it; by gene editing to breed chickens that are resistant to the disease, that goal may be closer to being achieved.
A study published today in the journal Nature Communications concludes Editing a protein necessary for avian influenza in chickens, called ANP32A, and deleting two of its associated genes (ANP32B and ANP32E) in the cells would prevent the virus from replicating from one animal to another.
“Avian influenza is widespread in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, especially South America, and there are concerns it could spread to Antarctica,” University of Edinburgh researcher Mike McGrew explained in a news release introducing the study .
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The virus poses a threat to wild birds, causes huge economic losses to livestock farmers, and poses risks to human health.Human deaths were actually caused, McGrew recalled.
Several years ago, Wendy Barclay, a scientist at Imperial College London and an author on the study, isolated the protein that carries the virus, taking the first step toward breeding chickens that are resistant to the virus. step. Now, researchers have successfully edited this protein in chicken germ cells to minimize the activity of influenza A.
“We found that adult chickens carrying the edited ANP32A protein were resistant to physiological doses of influenza A exposure from other infected birds and showed better recovery from the disease,” McGrew said.
Additionally, the chickens were followed for more than two years after receiving a dose of the virus, They do not suffer any health problems related to this, nor does it affect their egg production.
“We believe that making additional edits to the protein and deleting two other related genes (ANP32B and ANP32E) in chicken cells will prevent viral replication,” Barclay said in the same news release.
Scientists believe that research must continue to ensure that the health of animals is not affected by this gene editing, and to continue to verify whether this editing can effectively eliminate the possibility of viral evolution.
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