NIV’s Mumbai team uses CRISPR to develop poliovirus-free cell line | Mumbai News – Times of India

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MUMBAI: Researchers from the Mumbai unit of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) have used the cutting-edge gene-editing tool, CRISPR/Cas9, to develop a poliovirus-free cell line for use in research work in laboratories.
Many clinical trials and research using CRISPR/Cas9 are underway across the world, but there have only been a few from India.

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The genetic tool has mainly been used to develop hybrid crops, and, in May 2020, scientists from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology developed the world’s first CRISPR/Cas9-based rapid Covid-19 test.
Now, Mumbai’s scientists have used the CRISPR/Cas9 tool to knock out cells that support the growth of poliovirus. In a research paper published in Wiley Periodicals recently, the NIV team led by Dr Shyam S Nandi has written about developing the first-ever cell line in the world with “poliovirus nonpermissive cell strains”. In other words, they edited out cells that would let the polio grow in a culture sample.
Cell line is a general term used for a population of cells that can be maintained in culture for a long period of time. They can be used in vaccine production, testing drug metabolism and cytotoxicity, antibody production, study of gene function, among other similar scientific work.
The NIV Mumbai’s polio-free cell line is important in the backdrop of the global polio eradication programme. Four out of the six WHO (World Health Organisation) regions have been certified polio-free, and the wild poliovirus is endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the research paper, Dr Nandi has pointed out that the poliovirus could be unknowingly grown in laboratories, and pose a threat as it could be released into the environment.
Dr Ujjala Ghosal from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science, Lucknow, said Dr Nandi’s work is important when one considers how contamination by the poliovirus could adversely affect research projects on certain viruses. “Many laboratories across the world would need such cell lines,” she said.

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