John UM
When Chinese scientists first edited human embryonic genes in laboratories in 2015, they sparked strong protests and pleadings from scientists around the world. At least those transformed lives were not actually born at the time. But now, this seems to have happened. According to a report by People’s Daily on November 26, the team of He Jiankui from Shenzhen South University of Science and Technology in China suddenly announced on the day before the 2nd International Human Genome Editors Summit that a pair of genetically edited babies named Lulu and Nana had already The health of China was born in November, and the news triggered a global academic shock.
A pair of twins have been modified to make them naturally resistant to AIDS after birth. This is the world’s first genetically edited baby that is immune to AIDS. It also means that China has made historic breakthroughs in the field of disease prevention technology for disease prevention.
The first HIV immune gene editing baby.
According to documents published online this month by the China Clinical Trials Registry, the He Jiankui team has been recruiting volunteer couples to create the first genetically edited babies.
In this study, He Jiankui’s team first achieved in vitro fertilization of human embryos through assisted reproductive technology, followed by gene editing of the CCR5 gene of fertilized eggs using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. CCR5 is a protein encoded by the CCR5 gene that localizes to the surface of leukocytes and acts as a receptor for de-chemical factors associated with the immune system. It plays a role in the binding of T cells to specific tissues and target organs, and functions to regulate migration, proliferation and immunity of T cell nuclear monocytes or macrophage cell lines.
Related research information shows that individuals with CCR5△32 deletion have normal immune function and inflammatory response, and can exhibit significant resistance to various viral infections. In other words, genetic editing of CCR5 may effectively block cholera, smallpox or AIDS infection.
According to the description in the clinical trial file, the researchers will use the CRISPR gene editing technology to modify the human embryonic gene and then transplant it into the female uterus for surrogate development. . The
Clinical trial data also showed that the researchers will perform genetic testing on the fetus for up to 24 weeks or 6 months. The outside world has long speculated whether these transplanted embryos have been terminated or have been born.
For He Jiankui and China, the birth of the first genetically-customized humans will be an amazing medical achievement, but it will also cause huge controversy. Some people think that this is a new treatment to eliminate hereditary diseases, and some people think that this will open up a new form of eugenics that can design and transform babies.
“In the increasingly fierce global competition for genetic editing applications, we hope to stand out,” the He Jiankui team wrote in an ethical statement submitted last year. They believe that their innovation will surpass the 2010 Nobel Prize-winning in vitro fertilization technology.
The 2nd International Human Genome Editors Summit will be held in Hong Kong on November 27-29, 2018. The summit is expected to be held for three days by the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. The first International Human Genome Editors Summit was held in Washington, DC in 2015.
The purpose of this international conference is to help determine if humans should start genetic editing and how to monitor and implement them.
But the president of the International Summit, Caltech’s biologist David Baltimore said in a pre-recorded message for the November 27 meeting, “We have never done anything that would change the human genes, and we have never Haven’t done anything that will have an impact.”
Obviously, the organizers of the International Summit also knew nothing about the Jiankui’s plan.
Scientists’ concerns and concerns.
Gene editing of human embryos means significant risks, including the introduction of unwanted and unknown mutations.
Fyodor Urnov, a genetic editing scientist and deputy director of the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences in Seattle, a non-profit organization, said that he carefully studied the clinical trial files, although incomplete, but did show that the goal of the He Jiankui team was to train a genetically edited human.
Urnov says that gene editing is a powerful and valuable technology, but if applied to human embryos, it may give nearly a decade of genetic editing for adults and children to treat existing diseases. The progress is overshadowed.
In 2017, in a scientific report published by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the United States, He Jiankui described a series of preliminary genetic editing experiments on mice, monkeys and more than 300 human embryos. One risk of CRISPR is that it may introduce accidental or “off-target” mutations, but he claimed at the time that embryo testing showed little or no unnecessary changes.
But in a speech in 2017, He Jiankui also admitted that if the first CRISPR baby is unhealthy, it could be a disaster. “We should do this slowly and cautiously, because a single failure case can stifle the entire field,” he said.
Currently, the use of genetically edited embryos to establish pregnancy development is illegal in most parts of Europe and is prohibited in the United States. According to the guidance document issued by the Chinese government on IVF in 2003, this practice is also prohibited. However, it is not clear whether He Jiankui has obtained special permission or disregarded the guidance.
Public opinion attitude and moral hazard.
Not long ago, a research team at Sun Yat-sen University released the first domestic comparative report on gene editing cognition for the public and HIV carriers. Over 60% of respondents were positive about the use of gene editing technology. A total of 575 HIV carrier questionnaires showed that 94.78% of HIV carriers supported gene editing techniques for HIV prevention.
According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in the United States in April 2018 for 2,537 American adults, 60% of Americans support genetic editing of unborn babies, thinking that in order to reduce the risk of serious diseases, genes Editing is an effective medical tool.
Even so, He Jiankui’s choice to modify the CCR5 gene may be controversial, because the CCR5 gene is one of the major co-receptors of the HIV virus invading the body cells, and people without this gene are considered to be infected with HIV. Highly immune. However, in order to simulate the same results in the embryo, He Jiankui’s team used CRISPR technology to mutate the original normal embryo, thereby destroying the CCR5 gene.
In addition to emphasizing disease treatment, new technologies are inevitably reminiscent of the “customized baby” program that creates the perfect offspring. Fortunately, experts have so far agreed that genetic editing should not be used to change the appearance or character of a baby.
He Jiankui seems to have anticipated the concerns that may be caused by his research, so in November last year he wrote in the WeChat circle of friends, “I support genetic editing for the treatment and prevention of diseases, but I do not agree to improve or improve IQ, then Not good for society.”
Previous data showed that about 10% of people in the Nordic population had a natural CCR5 gene deletion, but it was not found in China. This suggests that genetic engineering may be used to select the most “useful” features that people in different places have acquired over the long term, and to focus them on future children through genetic editing. For example, those lucky people who have never had Alzheimer’s, heart disease or certain infectious diseases can “church” others.
It is worth mentioning that He Jiankui will also look at the revolution of technology from a historical perspective. “According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, life has evolved over the past billion years.” But in recent centuries, industrialization has been thoroughly Changing the environment has presented enormous challenges to humans. In this case, humans can use powerful tools to control evolution. “By correcting disease genes… we humans can live better in a rapidly changing environment.”
Nevertheless, the ability to knock out the CCR5 gene to produce anti-HIV may not be a strong reason to change the genetic identity of infants. After all, there are simpler, cheaper ways to prevent HIV infection. In addition, editing embryos during in vitro fertilization is costly and technically high, and is still not available in many poor areas of the world where HIV is paralyzed.
Destined to a study in the annals of history.
Information shows that He Jiankui is an associate professor at Southern University of Science and Technology. He graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China, studied in the United States, obtained a Ph.D. from Rice University, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, where he studied under the microfluidic gene chip originator Steven Quaker. During the United States, he and Nobel Prize winner Andrew. Phil, a member of the American Academy of Sciences, Mark. Davis has been working on human genetic testing technology for many years.
He Jiankui has a multidisciplinary background and has achieved a number of research results in the fields of genetic sequencer research, CRISPR gene editing, and bioinformatics. During his postdoctoral research at Stanford University’s Steven Quaker Laboratory, he developed the immunohistochemistry gene detection technology and published it in Science Translational Medicin, the international top academic journal Science magazine.
In 2012, He Jiankui was introduced to the overseas high-level talent program of Shenzhen Peacock Project and returned to China. He established a personal laboratory at the Southern University of Science and Technology to conduct research on gene sequencing. The Bohai Gene Company founded in 2017 also announced success. Developed GenoCare, a third-generation gene sequencing platform with completely independent intellectual property rights. At that time, with the official launch of the third-generation genetic sequencer Genocare, He Jiankui and his team began to come to the public in the image of the industry dark horse. In April 2018, Bohai Gene completed a round of financing of RMB 218 million.
In the field of human gene editing, although the team led by He Jiankui has achieved outstanding results and is the world leader, not all people have congratulated all scientists because it is not just about technology, but also about it. The red line of morality.
This is not a simple somatic editing, but an irreversible edit that can affect the evolution of the germline as it goes to the offspring. No one knows what the new life will face after editing, but there is no doubt that the fate of human evolution will begin to change.
What is ethical? This is a problem that cannot be solved by hanging on the chest of all scientists.
Is it moral if you can make a decision for a baby when he can’t decide his or her own destiny, but can’t share the risks he may face?
If you know that a method may change the fate of a family genetic disease baby, but turn a blind eye, it must be considered moral ethics?
But if you open the human embryo gene editor, is it a threat to raise the starting line to the fertilized egg stage? If parents have more wealth and rights, it will mean that their children have more opportunities.” Edit” chooses a better quality.
Too sharp knife as a tool can also hurt people. For new things, excitement and fear are two complex emotions that humans can’t avoid, excited about the fascinating charm of new things, but I don’t know if this charm also shines with the light of death.
Like the original IVF, the extreme crowd even regarded it as a life-threatening technique. Today, the world’s first IVF baby is 40 years old, and she already has her own healthy child.
At this moment, it is not the same as IVF. We can’t predict how the two babies will face fate, but there is no doubt that He Jiankui and his team are destined to be written into human history. .
