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Tech2 News StaffJul 31, 2019 17:54:16 IST
In December 2018, a Chinese scientist boldly baderted that he had secretly changed the genes for embryos. Not only that, he also claimed to have implanted these gene-modified embryos into seven couples undergoing IVF – two of the couples became pregnant. One of the two couples managed to give birth – binoculars, whose Chinese geneticist who led the genetic modification trial, He Jiankui, claimed to have received natural resistance to infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) caused by Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). ) virus. For more than one reason, Jiankui 's statement caused a sensation in the scientific community.
(Read also: A scientist who changed babies' genes probably also gave them a boost to the brain)
The World Health Organization, the world's leading authority on global public health issued a statement on July 26 stating his scruples with the practice of editing genes in humans. "It would be irresponsible for the moment that anyone pursue clinical applications of human genome-line genome editing," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, committee meeting.
He Jiankui during an interview in his laboratory in Shenzhen China. Image credit: AP
The WHO has called on regulatory and ethical authorities in all countries to stop and refuse approval of gene modification experiments likely to give birth to babies with high blood pressure. Modified DNA (a process known as germline gene modification, where modified DNA is pbaded from generation to generation). This limitation will last until "the implications have been duly taken into account", as the editing of genes in humans presents unique and unprecedented ethical and technical challenges, said the director. General of WHO.
The recommendation comes from a Expert Advisory Committee of 18 members to the WHO on the editing of the human genome, formed in December after the announcement of the first tests of Dr. He Jiankui on gene editing. The committee also suggested that the WHO create a global registry of all experiments involving genome editing, and the editing of the human genome in particular.
The issue will be revisited at a WHO meeting in Geneva in August 2019. They will also discuss instruments likely to deter and prevent irresponsible and unacceptable uses of genome modification on embryos prior to Implantation and pregnancy. Some scientists have announced their support for the strong words of the WHO.
Fyodor Urnov, gene editing scientist at the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences in Seattle and at the University of California at Berkeley said wired, "I congratulate the WHO for taking a stand on what I think is the good side of the matter."
Part of the IVF procedure in progress. Image credit: AP
Others, like Jiankui, feel that they should be allowed to conduct studies on gene editing, even regulated, with human embryos. Dr. George Church, a Harvard geneticist, in a interview with The Associated Press, defended He Jiankui's attempt to change the HIV vulnerability of human DNA, calling it "justifiable" because HIV is "a major and growing threat to public health".
(Read also: A Japanese scientist gets permission to create man-animal hybrids for a study of organ harvesting)
UNESCO also called for a ban on the editing of human DNA and modification of hereditary characters. The parents of twin babies, for whom their DNA would have been modified with the help of a gene editing technology called CRISPR, do not want to be identified or interrogated, according to Jiankui. No official newspaper has been published in a scientific journal to justify Jiankui's attempt to confer twins on HIV resistance with the help of CRISPR.
CRISPR-Cas9 is a tool that allows you to operate on the DNA, either to add a much needed gene or to disable one that is a problem. The technology has been used in adults to treat life-threatening diseases. The use of gene editing to treat adults also raises ethical issues, but the effects of treatment in adulthood will likely be limited to that person and will not be pbaded on to future generations. The absence of long-term safety data on the effects of CRISPR in humans is at the origin of the ethical gray area surrounding gene editing and CRISPR clinical applications.
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