A team Chinese scientists have created a pig model of Huntington’s disease (HD) by editing the genome, technologies, scientific achievements and important step for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
The study was published in cell on Friday. The scientists used the crispr/cas9 gene editing technology to introduce a segment of the human Gene that causes HD in fibroblast cells of the pig. After transferring the nuclei of somatic cells are formed pig embryos that carry this genetic change.
Compared to the widely used genetically modified mice, pigs HD model has the advantage of modeling neurodegenerative diseases because it is more consistent with symptoms of human disease, says co-senior study Author Li Shihua, Professor of human genetics at Emory University school of medicine.
“We believe that the model pig will fill a significant gap,” said Lee. “In pigs, a model of neurodegeneration is almost the same as in humans, and there were some procedures tested on mice, which do not translate to humans.”
In addition, procedures for the affected nervous system tissue can be better tested on pigs because their size is closer to the people, he said.
Lee cooperated with his colleagues in the Jinan University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong province. Pigs are now located in Guangzhou.
In the generation of model pigs HD will give impetus to research and development in the pharmaceutical industry based on the large models of animal diseases and accelerate progress in the development of new drugs for degenerative diseases, according to study group.
Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, als, and as neurodegenerative diseases that seriously threaten human health. These hereditary diseases are manifested and become more serious with age. There is no cure, partly because of the lack of suitable animal models for drug testing.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
