Investigating CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive for production of disease-preventing prion gene alleles.

ABSTRACT: Prion diseases are a group of fatal neurodegenerative disorders that includes chronic wasting disease, which affects cervids and is highly transmissible. Given that chronic wasting disease prevalence exceeds 30% in some endemic areas of North America, and that eventual transmission to other mammalian species, potentially including humans, cannot be ruled out, novel control strategies beyond population management via hunting and/or culling must be investigated. Prion diseases depend upon post-translational conversion of the cellular prion protein, encoded by the Prnp gene, into a disease-associated conformation; ablation of cellular prion protein expression, which is generally well-tolerated, eliminates prion disease susceptibility entirely. Inspired by demonstrations of gene drive in caged

SUBMITTER: Castle AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9173614 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature