Remove DNA Remove Engineering Remove Immune Response
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The role of CRISPR in microbiome engineering breakthroughs

Drug Target Review

When faced with a viral threat, bacterial cells developed an immune response by capturing and copying DNA fragments of viruses. This allowed bacteria to recognise subsequent attacks and cleave the viral DNA to stop the viral infection. It was also discovered that the Cas enzyme was responsible for DNA cleavage.

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Targeting the immunotherapy potential of cytokines IL-12 and IL-18 with new advancements in protein engineering

Drug Target Review

Natural killer (NK) cells are another immune cell type that, as the name suggests, also have potent cell-killing activity, and have a well-known role in the anti-tumour immune response. In the context of a tumour microenvironment, Tregs are often present in high numbers, preventing an effective immune response to the tumour.

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Utilising engineered peptides for immunotherapy

Drug Target Review

Since cancer cells are under chronic stimulation of ER stress, the polypeptides cannot activate innate immune sensors in cancer cells even upon the polypeptide treatment. Which natural agonists impede the activation of intracellular DNA sensors in APCs, and what challenges do they pose?

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Designing a Better Probiotic. CRISPR Hubris?

PLOS: DNA Science

The molecular tools of CRISPR were borrowed and developed from the natural immune response of bacteria to viruses – bacteriophages – that infect them. A recent paper in BioDesign Research , CRISPR-Cas-Based Engineering of Probiotics , from investigators at several Chinese research institutions, contributed to the report.

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Not all neoantigens are created equal

Drug Target Review

During the process of transformation from a normal cell into a cancer cell, a cell acquires a series of changes, or mutations, in its DNA. But DNA mutations can also result in changes to the proteins that are displayed on the surface of the cancer cell. Neoantigens are recognised as non-self and trigger an immune response.

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A therapy candidate for fatal prion diseases turns off disease-causing gene

Broad Institute

Unlike gene editing, this “epigenetic” editing does not modify the underlying DNA sequence, but it should switch the gene off permanently, which means that this could be a one-time treatment. They used an engineered adeno-associated virus (AAV) that crosses the blood-brain barrier after intravenous administration. Online June 27, 2024.

Disease 142
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T-cell receptors offer window to the cell for a new class of cancer therapeutics

Drug Target Review

Unlike almost every other cell type (except B cells), T cells do not have the exact same chromosomal DNA sequences as other cells in the body. To be therapeutically useful, antigenic peptides must be presented in a way that allows immune responses to destroy cancer cells without causing unacceptable damage to healthy tissue.