'Sindella' Emerges in Cancer Treatment: "Killing Only Cancer Cells with Gene Editing"

New Treatment Method Developed Using Gene Editing by Institute for Basic Science

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A patient-tailored anticancer treatment method that selectively kills only cancer cells without damaging normal cells using gene scissors has been developed.

The Institute for Basic Science (IBS) announced on the 23rd that the Genome Homeostasis Research Group has developed a cancer treatment method called 'CINDELA (Cancer specific INDEL Attacker)' that can be applied to all types of cancer without side effects.

Conventional anticancer treatments using radiation and chemical anticancer drugs cause serious side effects such as hair loss and diarrhea because they damage the DNA double helix of not only cancer cells but also normal cells. In contrast, CINDELA technology uses CRISPR-Cas9 gene scissors to selectively cut the DNA double helix of mutations present only in cancer cells, thereby killing only cancer cells without affecting normal cells.

The research team first confirmed that cutting the DNA double helix using gene scissors (protein enzymes) can induce cancer cell death similarly to physical and chemical DNA double helix cuts caused by radiation or chemical anticancer drugs. Then, through bioinformatics analysis, they identified unique 'insertion/deletion (InDel) mutations' in various cancer cell lines (breast cancer, colon cancer, leukemia, glioblastoma) that are not found in normal cells. They produced CRISPR-Cas9 gene scissors targeting these mutations and applied them in mouse experiments, proving that cancer cells can be selectively killed without affecting normal cells. The more DNA double helices of InDel mutations cut by CINDELA technology, the greater the cancer cell death effect. Furthermore, they demonstrated that it can also inhibit cancer cell growth.

Although there have been previous studies on cancer treatment using gene scissors, they faced limitations due to inefficiency. The process was complicated and time-consuming because it involved identifying various causes of cancer-inducing mutations and producing gene scissors to revert them to normal. However, CINDELA technology kills cancer cells by cutting the DNA double helix of InDel mutations commonly generated during all cancer formation processes, thereby blocking DNA damage repair. In other words, it produced gene scissors for cancer treatment that can be immediately applied to all cancers regardless of the mutation characteristics of cancer cells.

Director Myung Kyung-jae stated, "We have developed a patient-tailored precision medical platform technology that can be applied to all cancers without side effects," and added, "We expect it to change the paradigm of cancer treatment." He also said, "Currently, experiments are underway to treat cancer cells taken from actual cancer patients using CINDELA technology, and we will focus on follow-up research to improve technology efficiency and commercialization."

The research results were published online on the 22nd in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), an international academic journal.