Iranian Scientists Use CRISPER Technology to Make Kits for Diagnosis of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Vaccination and genetic diagnosis of viral diseases using RNA interference (RNAi) technology and CRISPR-Cas system, a case study of foot-and-mouth disease, is the title of the research project of Mohammad Reza Bakhtiarizadeh, a PhD graduate in genetics and animal breeding field and a faculty member of the University of Tehran.

“RNAi technology and the CRISPR-Cas system, which created a revolution in the field of genome editing, are two useful strategies to deal with the foot-and-mouth disease,” Bakhtiarizadeh said.

“Considering that in the near future this technology will be the basis of diagnostic kits, vaccination and genetic therapy in various fields such as medicine, veterinary medicine and agriculture, therefore, achieving this technology shows that Iran is a pioneer in the field of biotechnology,” he added.

“At present, production of diagnostic kit for this disease using CRISPR technology has been successfully achieved in the laboratory,” Bakhtiarizadeh said.

RNA viruses account for many human diseases and pandemic events but are often not targetable by traditional therapeutics modalities. Here, we demonstrate that adeno-associated virus (AAV) -delivered CRISPR-Cas13 directly targets and eliminates the positive-strand EV-A71 RNA virus in cells and infected mice.

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of livestock that has a significant economic impact. The disease affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats and other cloven-hoofed ruminants. It is a transboundary animal disease (TAD) that deeply affect the production of livestock and disrupting regional and international trade in animals and animal products.

The disease is estimated to circulate in 77% of the global livestock population, in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as in a limited area of South America. Countries that are currently free of FMD without vaccination remain under constant threat of an incursion. Seventy-five percent of the costs attributed to FMD prevention and control are incurred by low income and lower-middle income countries. Africa and Eurasia are the regions which incur the largest costs, accounting for 50% and 33% of the total costs respectively. FMD is caused by an Aphthovirus of the family Picornaviridae, seven strains (A, O, C, SAT1, SAT2, SAT3, and Asia1) are endemic in different countries worldwide.

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