Russia has taken a significant step in the field of advanced gene editing technologies by allocating resources for the development of a new treatment against chronic hepatitis B. The Russian Science Foundation has provided a grant to a joint project of Sechenov University and the pharmaceutical company R-Farm. The project aims to eliminate the hepatitis B virus from infected liver cells using CRISPR-Cas9 technology.
According to a statement from Sechenov University, thanks to this funding, the project will move from the laboratory stage to the industrial prototype production stage. The drug to be developed will use CRISPR-Cas9 complexes placed inside biocompatible nanoparticles.
The CRISPR-Cas9 technology, also known as "molecular scissors," has the capacity to cleave viral DNA without damaging the human genome through the highly precise Cas9 nuclease protein. This method has the potential to intervene in the root cause of the disease.
Sechenov University Rector Petr Glybochko previously stated that experts have developed a new drug for hepatitis B and that this drug is expected to completely eliminate the virus genome from infected cells.