Researchers from the Gene Editing Institute at Christiana Care Hospital in the United States have created the CRISPR genetic technology to restore the effectiveness of chemotherapy against lung cancer cells, by turning off the gene responsible for resistance to treatment.
The study – the results of which were published in the journal Molecular Therapy Oncology – revealed that disabling the NRF2 gene made the cells respond again to chemotherapy drugs and significantly slowed the growth of the tumor.
Researchers point out that the main problem with some lung tumors is that they develop the ability to resist chemotherapy, so they are not affected by it as they should be. However, disabling the gene responsible for this resistance restored the cells’ response to treatment again, which opens an important door to improving the effectiveness of current treatments.
Dr. Kelly Banas, the lead author of the study, stated that the team was able to identify a specific mutation in the gene known as “R34G” that increases the ability of cancer cells to resist treatment. Using CRISPR technology, researchers restored the sensitivity of cells to common chemical drugs such as carboplatin and paclitaxel after inactivating the gene.
The results showed tangible success, whether in laboratory experiments or research samples that simulate the behavior of real tumors, as it was found that modifying only 20% to 40% of the tumor cells was sufficient to improve treatment response and reduce tumor growth, in a step that is important given the difficulty of targeting every cancer cell.
It is noteworthy that these results represent a promising step towards restoring the sensitivity of tumors to conventional treatment, and may open the way to developing more effective treatments for resistant cancers in the future.