利用基因编辑可以延缓小鼠听力失聪：近日，Nature发表了 “Treatment of autosomal dominant hearing loss by in vivo delivery of genome editing agents“。作者利用Cas9蛋白和sgRNA在贝多芬老鼠模型里，特异性的敲除仅有一个碱基突变的变异基因Tmc1 Bth，达到了延缓老鼠听力失聪的效果。

Genome editing has been used to reduce hearing loss in ‘Beethoven’ mice, which carry a mutation that causes deafness in both mice and humans. The research relies on a technique called CRISPR–Cas9 to knock out amutant form of the gene Tmc1. In doing so, it lays out a potential pathway for treating other genetic causes of hearing loss. It also addresses a major problem facing the field of genome editing: how to deliver the protein and RNA needed for the CRISPR–Cas9 techniqueinto thecells of a living animal (原文报道见https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08722-3).