Jul 2026· Wetchasan sattawaphaet = The Thai journal of veterinary medicine· 0 citations
TL;DR
This review provides an overview of recent advances in the development of genetically engineered pigs with enhanced resistance to major viral diseases, focusing on targeted gene modifications using knockout, knock-in, and overexpression approaches.
Abstract
Highly contagious viral pathogens—such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, classical swine fever, and African swine fever—continue to pose serious threats to the swine industry and cause major global economic losses. Conventional disease control approaches, such as vaccination and biosecurity, are limited by viral heterogeneity and immune escape mechanisms. Gene editing technologies, most notably the CRISPR/Cas9 system, offer an innovative means of introducing innate viral disease resistance or resilience in pigs. The continuous improvement of these tools can provide a sustainable strategy to enhance animal welfare and global food security and reduce reliance on traditional control measures. This review provides an overview of recent advances in the development of genetically engineered pigs with enhanced resistance to major viral diseases, focusing on targeted gene modifications using knockout, knock-in, and overexpression approaches.
This review systematically summarize recent progress in CRISPR/Cas9-based screening studies of major livestock and poultry viruses, including foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), swine enteric coronaviruses, African swine fever virus (ASFV), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), avian leukosis virus (ALV), and other zoonotic pathogens.
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV) is a highly contagious enteric coronavirus that targets the small intestinal epithelium in swine. PEDV is highly lethal in neonatal piglets and has the potential to be economically devastating for swine producers if an epidemic were to occur. Since there is limited success with vaccinations, gene editing technology can be leveraged as an effective containment strategy of PEDV. Genes identified as potential receptors or proviral factors can be targeted, creating knock-out (KO) models which can be subsequently challenged with PEDV. The Death Receptor 5- like (DR5-like) gene has been previously associated with promoting early viral infection of PEDV. In this study, DR5-like KO fetuses were created, and small intestinal organoids were established from them, with the goal of using them for viral challenge. Phenotypic abnormalities of these KO animals were analyzed and histological analysis showed morphological differences in the villous structure along with a reduction in intestinal stem cell markers. As intestinal organoids (IO) grow in popularity, and are more often used in viral challenges, direct gene editing of IOs to create these KO models has become more appealing. Directly editing the organoid itself can improve timeline efficiency of creating a novel model and prevents the need for sacrificing an animal to isolate intestinal crypts. The aim of this set of experiments was to refine a ribonucleoprotein-based editing approach tailored specifically for pig intestinal organoids. This refined protocol greatly improved editing of intestinal organoids, with maximum editing up to 100 percent per IO.
This review summarizes CRISPR principles, highlights technical breakthroughs and crop applications that mitigate biotic and abiotic stresses, and outlines practical challenges and future directions necessary for responsible deployment in agriculture.
Muhammad Faran Tahir, Muhammad Hamzah Saleem, Sidra Aslam et al.· Turkish Journal of Agricultu...· 0 citations
This study establishes a reverse genetics platform for an emerging G2c PEDV strain and provides a stable fluorescent reporter virus, offering valuable tools for visualizing viral infection and investigating virus–host interactions.
Fan Zhang, He-Lu Liu, Linlong Ji et al.· Viruses· 0 citations
This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of viral and non-viral vector systems for in vivo and ex vivo applications, and key comparisons are made across safety, efficacy, scalability, and immune responses.