Gene Mutation Could Help Resist HIV At Birth

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People call it a lot of names- from the scientific ‘genetic bioengineering ‘  to  the generally recognized ‘cloning’- researchers in China said that they have successfully ‘edited’ a human embryo that could someday be resistant to certain types of diseases, particularly HIV.

This controversial discovery was published recently in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics by a team of researchers from the Guangzhou Medical University in China, where a human embryo was genetically modified using a gene editing method called the CRISPR/Cas9, claiming that the experiments were conducted on embryos with an extra set of chromosomes that were declared ‘not viable.’

Although genetic modification, particularly on human embryos, continue to be a controversial topic with ethical proportions, tests like these are often frowned upon and due to the sensitivity of the issues surrounding it, science is not too keen on announcing any breakthroughs of this nature until much is learned from research of this nature.

A similar undertaking just a year earlier in China also drew flak from both the ethical and medical communities which also involved gene modification studies on human embryo genes.

For this latest experiment the Chinese researchers collected 213 fertilized eggs from a fertility clinic that have been rejected as they were deemed unsuitable for in vitro therapy. The donors also granted permission for the eggs to be used for genetic research, provided that these embryos not be allowed to mature as human beings.

The CRISPR/Ca9 gene editing technique that involves a mutation that damages an immune genome cell named the CCR5, which is surprisingly suspected that the process leads to resistance to the HIV virus, for which the study is  intended to be the stepping stone for developing babies that are immune to HIV.

So far, 4 out of the 26 specimens were successfully modified, while some resulted to unexpected mutations and had to be destroyed. Although they failed to disclose details of these unexpected results, however, several groups in China are willing to pursue further research despite global clamour.

The researchers refuse to downplay the results of their work and will continue to pursue similar research to pave the way for future. They believe that the world will someday understand their efforts and that it will benefit humans.

Genetic engineering has come a long way from when it started, but continues to remain controversial due to ethical principles.

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