China Races Ahead in Gene Editing

choi

reetika Rana, Amy Dockser Marcus and Wenxin Fan, 将基因编辑技术投入人体试验，中国速度为何让美国望尘莫及？  用于编辑DNA的Crispr-Cas9工具引发全球关注，这项技术虽由美国研发，但尚未投入人体试验。但约束较少的中国却将这种全新技术率先用于癌症治疗的临床试验.
http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20180123/BCH100718.asp

, which is translated from

Preetika Rana, Amy Dockser Marcus and Wenxin Fan, China Races Ahead in Gene Editing; US helped devise Crispr tool. Chinese doctors, unfettered by rules, are first in human trials. Wall Street Journal, Jan 22, 2018 (front page).

Note:
(a) The WSJ has not allowed the report to be available online.
(b) "Wu Shixiu * * * Dr Wu's team at Hangzhou Cancer Hospital has been drawing blood from esophageal-cancer patients, shiping it by high-speed rail to a lab [see (c) below] that modifies disease-fighting cells using Crispr-Cas9 by deleting a gene that interferes with the immune system's ability to fight cancer.  His team then infuses the cells back into the patients, hoping the reprogramed DNA will destroy the disease.
(i) 吴式琇  杭州市肿瘤医院 (owned by Hangzhou First People's Hospital Group 杭州市第一人民医院集团 (市一集团) )
(ii) The report does not say what gene, but googling reveals Dr Wu is doing "PD-1 knockout T cells."  The PD-1 (programed death-1) gene makes a receptor on cell surface of activated T lymphocytes, that will bind with PD-L1 (programmed death-ligand 1; on the surface of many cells: normal and cancerous) like a lock and its key. In US, Merck's monoclonal antibody Keytruda® (pembrolizumab, where the last three letter signifies monoclonal antibody) to block PD-1 (physically, from binding the ligand) might be promising, but Food and Drug Administration has not approved it yet.
(c) "A Chinese startup Anhui Kedgene Biotechnology Co [Ltd 安徽柯顿生物科技有限公司: 合肥市] * * * Mandy Zhou 周敏, who co-founded Kedgene in 2015"
(d) Personally I am skeptical about both PD-a and Crispr. I will wait for more data.