welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Friday, February 18, 2022

alzheimers news-using crispr to remove the alzheimers gene

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-USING CRISPR TO REMOVE THE ALZHEIMERS GENE

the early onset alzheimers disease is caused by a few genes that represents about 1% of the cases of alzheimers disease
these patients can start having symptoms in their early 30s
they die in their 40s or early 50s
if you get the gene you will get alzheimers disease

the iceland mutation is a mutation that occurs in some icelanders that prevents them from getting alzheimers disease

the crispr gene editing tool can be used to excise an abnormal gene from the dna then put back in its place a normal gene 

eg
scientists used crispr to remove the gene for sickle cell disease from a patient then replaced it with the normal gene for the red cell hemoglobulin
thus
curing this patient from having sickle cell disease

what if scientists did this in early onset alzheimers disease
by
removing the early onset alzheimers gene with cispr and replacing it with the icelander mutation gene

if it worked those patients would not get alzheimers disease

is this just wishful scientific fiction
no it may be possible

in this article they describe research from canada where they put brain cells that had the early onset gene in them and used the crispr gene editing tool to remove the alzheimers gene and replaced it with the icelander mutation gene
this was done in a petri dish in the lab
this shuts off the alzheimers disease process that goes on in these brain cells

next
they will do it on mice
then
next
humans

could this be a cure for this devastating disease in these young adults
maybe

they could use viruses that dont make folks sick and use it to infect the brain cells then edit out the bad alzheimers gene and add back the icelander gene resulting in a person cured of early onset alzheimers

this is theoretically possible
this research warrants close watching for the future

my question would be
could the cispr gene be used to edit out my apoe 4 gene the late onset alzheimers gene and replace it with the icelander gene

id be game on for that 

i will be watching this research as it develops 

one way to be proactive is to keep an eye on the research in its early stages
thats how i was able to identify the aduhelm or aducanumab drug that i am on now


i am awaiting my mri results 
if its negative i will be able to get my next adhuhelm infusion in two weeks

i also was contacted yesterday by ucla media for an interview about my involvement with the aducanumab study 
i will post that interview after it happens

the organicgreen doctor

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