Israeli scientists kill cancer cells in mice in 'world-first' procedure

Tel Aviv - Tel Aviv University researchers claim the technology can be developed for humans within the next two years.

Scientists in Israel claim to have achieved a world first by deploying history-making technology to destroy cancerous cells in mice without damaging others.

The ground-breaking treatment has been described as a “more elegant chemotherapy” with no major side effects.

The CRISPR Cas-9 gene editing method allows scientists to make precise alterations to DNA, and helped creators Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year.

It is a method so precise it’s as if “tiny scissors” were being used to target only affected cells.

Tel Aviv University researchers now insist they can use the system to treat cancer in animals, according to Professor Dan Peer.

He announced plans to develop the treatment for all cancers and that the technique could be ready to use on humans within two years.

Peer told the Times of Israel that he hopes the process will eventually replace chemotherapy - an aggressive form of treatment that can have serious side effects for patients.

Unlike the method used in the Tel Aviv University research, chemotherapy targets the whole body.

Peer's peer-reviewed research was published in the Science Advances journal and, as reported by Britain's MailOnline, he told the Times of Israel that there are 'no side effects' from the process, which he described as 'a more elegant chemotherapy'.

"We believe that a cancer cell treated in this way will never become active again," he said.

"This technology can extend the life expectancy of cancer patients and we hope, one day, cure the disease," Peer said, adding that the technique can destroy a tumour within three treatments.

"This technology can physically cut the DNA in cancerous cells, and those cells will not survive."

Hundreds of mice were analysed as part of the study.

The animals had the two of the most aggressive types of cancer - glioblastoma, a brain cancer, and metastatic ovarian cancer.

The mice who received treatment had double the life expectancy of the control group, with a 30 per cent higher survival rate, Science Advances reported.

CRISPR Cas-9 is currently only used for rare diseases on cells that have already been removed from the body, MaiIOnline noted.

Peer said that the injection consists of messenger RNA that 'encodes' the 'tiny scissor function' for snipping the DNA, a system for identifying cancerous cells and a lipid nanoparticle.

"When we first spoke of treatments with messenger RNA twelve years ago, people thought it was science fiction," Peer told the Times of Israel.

"I believe that in the near future, we will see many personalised treatments based on genetic messengers, for cancer and various genetic diseases."

"The technology needs to be further developed, but the main thing is we have shown that this can kill cancer cells."

• MENA