基因改造蛛丝可用于基因治疗

Genetically² engineered spider silk could help overcome a major barrier to the use of gene¹ therapy in everyday medicine, according to a new study that reported development and successful initial laboratory tests of such a material. It appears in ACS' journal Bioconjugate Chemistry. David Kaplan and colleagues note that gene therapy -- the use of beneficial genes³ to prevent or treat disease -- requires safe and efficient carriers or "vectors（向量，带菌者） ." Those carriers are the counterparts to pills and capsules, transporting therapeutic⁴ genes into cells in the body. Safety and other concerns surround the experimental use of viruses to insert genes. The lack of good gene delivery systems is a main reason why there are no FDA-approved gene therapies, despite almost 1,500 clinical trials since 1989. The new study focused on one promising⁵ prospect⁶, silk proteins, which are biocompatible and have been used in everyday medicine and medical research for decades. #

The scientists describe modifying spider silk proteins so that they attach to diseased cells and not healthy cells. They also engineered the spider silk to contain a gene that codes for the protein that makes fireflies glow in order to provide a visual signal (seen using special equipment) that the gene has reached its intended target. In lab studies using mice containing human breast cancer cells, the spider-silk proteins attached to the cancer cells and injected the DNA⁷ material into the cells without harming the mice.

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The results suggest that the genetically-engineered spider-silk proteins represent "a versatile⁸（通用的） and useful new platform polymer for nonviral gene delivery," the article notes.

The authors acknowledged funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. #