04.11.2020, Moscow.
Microbiologist, expert on biological weapons, former member of the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq, former advisor to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former member of the UN Commission on Biological Weapons Igor Nikulin commented on the intention of Western scientists to fight the coronavirus with the help of genetic engineering in an interview with a Rossa Primavera News Agency’s correspondent on November 3.
The expert said that the use of CRISPR/Cas-based methods for genome engineering to fight the human diseases cannot currently guarantee positive results.
“Knowledge about this method is insufficient, and the scientists have a very approximate understanding about six billion nucleotides. To date, it is known how the main proteins acts (2% of the total genome), and as for the rest it is unknown field or ‘rubbish DNA.’ There is a hypothesis that this is viral DNA and perhaps a human has his own mechanism such as CRISPR/Cas9 to fight viruses, but so far this is just a hypothesis,” the expert said.
On April 29, an article was published about the creation of PAC-MAN strategy to combat COVID-19 in Cell journal. It is based on CRISPR/Cas13-based strategy used to modify DNA. In 2020, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of this technology.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
