Scientists said Wednesday they have used a popular gene-editing tool to successfully fix a genetic mutation that causes sickle cell anemia, taking a key step toward a cure for the blood disease.

As described in the U.S. journal Science Translational Medicine, the researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 to correct the disease-causing mutation in stem cells from the blood of affected patients.

Only "a proportion" of stem cells were fixed and produced healthy hemoglobin, but that is "high enough to produce a substantial benefit in sickle cell patients," they said.

When implanted into mice, these corrected stem cells stuck around for at least four months, with no signs of side effects, a hint that they would also work in humans.

"This is an important advance because for the first time we show a level of correction in stem cells that should be sufficient for a clinical benefit in persons with sickle cell anemia," said co-author Mark Walters, director of Benioff Oakland's Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at the University of California (UC), San Francisco.

Senior author Jacob Corn, scientific director of the Innovative Genomics Initiative at UC Berkeley, said they hope to re-infuse patients with the edited stem cells and alleviate symptoms of the disease.

Corn and Walters will work together to initiate an early-phase clinical trial to test this new treatment within the next five years.

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