Il genome editing con CRISP/Cas9: implicazioni tecniche ed etiche

In the last decade, with the advent of new genetic manipulation techniques, the possibility of a more precise action has become more and more concrete thanks to genome editing, that is, a procedure through which DNA sequences are inserted, eliminated, modified or replaced within the genome of an organism. The most advanced and used genome editing technique today is CRISPR/Cas9: it is a tool that allows us to modify DNA in living cells with high precision and at a very low cost, especially when combined with the Cas9 protein. Genome editing could lead to a rethinking of the human being no longer only as an unavailable and ran- dom result of evolution, but also a possible result of a choice: and this imposes a technical and ethical reflection on the simplicity of the practice and, above all, on security and experimentation. Given the impossibility of knowing all the possible consequences of human genome editing, it is clear that genome editing on the human germline is not a practice yet sufficiently safe to be made available. Genome editing technique with CRISPR on the germline is not to be considered a technique currently applicable in a therapeutic context, both from a scientific and an ethical point of view. However, should open questions be resolved in the future, there will be valid reasons for making the practice analyzed here available.

Il sistema CRISPR consente di modificare il DNA nelle cellule viventi con alta precisione e a costi contenuti, se combinato con la proteina Cas9. Questa tecnica oggi non è applicabile in un contesto terapeutico, da un punto di vista scientifico ed etico, circa i rischi di non sicurezza sperimentale; tuttavia, lo potrebbe diventare in futuro.