• Question from:Hasan

Lately, CRISPR has been considered to do miracles in regard to curing diseases.

As a dentist/scientist, one of the main problems we face are caries.

The responsible bacteria is called Streptococcus mutans.

Can CRISPR be used to eliminate this type of bacteria ??


Thanks

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  • University of Bristol
  • Posts: 4,230

CRISPR is used to alter or delete a gene or a stretch of DNA. It can't be used (at least at present) to eliminate a whole species of bacteria.

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  • University of Bristol
  • Posts: 560

There are some early strategies using CRISPR to target drug-resistant bacteria (e.g., by ‘attacking’ antibiotic resistant gene repertoire). One problem are current delivery systems and whether they will be ‘fast’ enough to overcome a quickly evolving bug population. see -

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles. … nd-Phages/

http://www.nature.com/scibx/journal/v7/ … .1198.html