Russian scientists have developed a drug for the treatment of hepatitis B based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology.
A hepatitis B therapy based on gene-editing technology has been developed in Russia, Sechenov University reported.
“We have developed a new non-viral delivery system based on biodegradable nanoparticles. For the first time, we have learned how to package CRISPR/Cas complexes with an efficiency of about 80 percent,” said Dmitry Kostyushev, Head of the Laboratory of Genetic Technologies in Drug Development.
According to him, a single nanoparticle can contain 200–250 copies of antiviral complexes, which is sufficient to remove all copies of the viral genome in an infected cell.
“We modify the surface of the nanoparticles so that the complexes are delivered specifically to cells susceptible to the virus, and our studies show that the nanoparticles indeed penetrate 90–95 percent of infected cells,” Kostyushev added.
He noted that the drug is very short-lived: after 20–24 hours, no traces of it remain in the liver.
In addition, CRISPR/Cas complexes can be reprogrammed for other purposes, such as gene editing, epigenome editing, or altering DNA or RNA nucleotide sequences.
“Our delivery systems are universal: any ‘payload’—anticancer molecules or genetic editing systems—can be delivered to a target organ,” Kostyushev said.
The scientist explained that this approach can be used to correct mutations, destroy tumors, or suppress infections, depending on the specific task.
Source: RIA Novosti, January 22, 2026.
