Application of Gene Editing in Pathology Dissection of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease (HD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), etc., refer to a group of neurological disorders characterized by progressive atrophy or loss of structure and function of neurons in the central and peripheral nervous system. Although the cause of NDs still remains largely unknown, more and more evidence shows that genetic involvement is one of the main pathological causes leading to common NDs. Therefore, generating specific ND animal models through gene editing to explore the pathogenesis of ND and their potential applications in drug screening and evaluation is a direction worthy of further investigation.

This Research Topic encourages researchers 1) to establish new ND models through gene editing to better simulate the phenotype of ND and to explore its pathological characteristics and pathogenesis, and 2) to apply gene-edited ND models to screen and evaluate potential drugs for ND. It is hoped that gene editing can play a pivotal role in the in-depth understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

The sub-themes of this Research Topic include but are not limited to:
 Establishing ND-related models through gene editing;
 Exploring the pathogenesis of ND through gene editing for Potential gene therapies;
 Using animal models obtained from gene editing to screen and evaluate drugs;
 Novel gene-editing techniques to advance our understanding of the genetic mechanism of NDs