The next country where genetically modified children could be born is Russia. The scientists there want to follow the controversial Chinese experiment.
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Last November a Chinese scientist named Jiankui He announced the birth of two girls from embryos which had their DNA altered. And this August a third genetically “enhanced” child was allegedly born – with the experiment coming from the same controversial Chinese scientist.
He tried to block the gene known as CCR5 in fertilized human eggs. He based his experiment on information that people who have one of the 32 gene code letters “fall out” in that part of the genome are resistant to infection with the HIV1 virus. The virus uses a protein to enter the white blood cells which is made thanks to the CCR5 gene. And if this gene doesn’t work, this “backdoor” is not there and the virus cannot get in.
In two cases, people who were already infected with the HIV1 virus got a bone marrow transplant and the virus was then eradicated from their body. But the mutation is very rare and occurs only in about 1% of people from Northern Europe. And for example, the Chinese don’t have it at all.
Jiankui He didn’t perform his highly controversial experiment according to Chinese laws. And most likely he didn’t provide resistance to the HIV1 virus for the two girls and put them at risk of side effects. Currently, He is missing. The Chinese have started to investigate him around December of 2018 and he has not appeared publicly since.
But, He was not some lone wolf. At least fifty other scientists knew about his experiment and not just in China. Scientists from all over the world corresponded with his about the experiment and even Nobel Prize laureates were among them. Several clinics were interested in his approach and wanted to cooperate with him on genetically modifying more children.
Denis Rebrikov – a Russian biologist – is one of the people who want to modify human DNA and create genetically modified children. And he is quite opened about it. During the summer of 2019, he said he will repeat the Chinese experiment but do it well. And not formally – with permission from the Russian government but also when it comes to the experiment itself. He wants to exactly imitate the natural CCR5 mutation.
Newest news from Russia published by the journal Nature show that Rebrikov has not backed down. But he was forced to slightly change his plants. He wasn’t capable of finding parents who would agree to a change of the DNA of an embryo that would lead to HIV1 resistance. Instead, he found parents who have a hearing problem thanks to a mutation of the GJB2 gene.
In vitro fertilization should create an embryo that could have its mutated GJB2 gene repaired. And from the “repaired” embryo a child with a normal hearing should be born and it should not have the problem of potentially burdening its children with the mutation either. On the other hand, some news claim that the pair has back out of the deal but Rebrikov claims that his plans are only being postponed because of private health problems of the parents.
At the same time, Rebrikov is not sitting still and is starting to prepare. He tried repairing the damaged gene in cells of people who can’t hear because of the mutation and in his next experiment he tried working with the GJB2 gene in an egg of a healthy woman. But everything depends on one thing – will the Russian government allow it.
Rebrikov was recently visited by Maria Voroncova. She is the person who decides about medicinal ethical questions concerning research in Russia. But we know nothing about what she thinks about this particular experiment. Similarly, we know nothing about the opinion of the Russian minister of health Veronika Skvorcova. And some news outlets think that the final decision may come down to the opinion of the Russian president Vladimir Putin
It is hard to guess how the situation will unfold. But we should understand that Russia certainly isn’t the only country who is attempting something like this. Others may be silent but that may just mean that they are working even harder in their laboratories. The future is likely to bring us more genetically modified children.
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