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China's CRISPR Twins Might Have Had Their Brains Inadvertently Enhanced (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: The brains of two genetically-edited girls born in China last year may have been changed in ways that enhance cognition and memory, scientists say. The twins, called Lulu and Nana, were modified using CRISPR, a new gene-editing tool, by a Chinese scientific team to make the girls immune to infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Now, new research shows the same genetic alteration introduced into the girls' DNA, to a gene called CCR5, not only makes mice smarter, but also improves human brain recovery after stroke, and could be linked to greater success in school.
"The answer is likely yes, it did affect their brains," says Alcino J. Silva, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Silva's lab lab has been uncovering a major new role for the CCR5 gene in memory formation and the brain's ability to form new connections. "The simplest interpretation is that those mutations will probably have an impact on cognitive function in the twins," says Silva. He says the exact effect on the girls cognition is impossible to predict and "that is why it should not be done." The Chinese designer babies were created to be resistant to HIV. A team in Shenzhen, China, led by Southern University of Science and Technology He Jiankui used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to delete a single gene, called CCR5, from human embryos, some of which were later used to create pregnancies. The virus that causes AIDS requires the CCR5 gene to enter human blood cells. The scientist, He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, has been fired from the university as He is under investigation in China. There is no evidence that He actually set out to modify the twins' intelligence.
"The answer is likely yes, it did affect their brains," says Alcino J. Silva, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Silva's lab lab has been uncovering a major new role for the CCR5 gene in memory formation and the brain's ability to form new connections. "The simplest interpretation is that those mutations will probably have an impact on cognitive function in the twins," says Silva. He says the exact effect on the girls cognition is impossible to predict and "that is why it should not be done." The Chinese designer babies were created to be resistant to HIV. A team in Shenzhen, China, led by Southern University of Science and Technology He Jiankui used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to delete a single gene, called CCR5, from human embryos, some of which were later used to create pregnancies. The virus that causes AIDS requires the CCR5 gene to enter human blood cells. The scientist, He Jiankui of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, has been fired from the university as He is under investigation in China. There is no evidence that He actually set out to modify the twins' intelligence.
If only we could get some politicians to undergo this procedure...
Well, for one thing, HIV resistance has only been useful since the 70s.
Politicians are not stupid. They are disloyal. They seem stupid because they say they want one thing, and then put in plans that don't accomplish that thing. This is malice, not stupidity, at work.
Their public debates don't happen so they can convince each other of a damned thing. They do that to convince the masses to vote for them. Doing this, of course, requires that they make impossible promises. They are perfectly content to let everyone think they are stupid, because it allows them to get away with it.
Wake up, dude.
We do not yet know *every single exact* effect the modification of this gene will do to a human being outside of a lab.
That is the reason why. No data = big problem.
Modern science is inherently cautious... The bonafide "mad scientist" He Jiankui, decided to say "F*** the ethical standards!" and went ahead and made it happen without any standard regulatory oversight.
From what I've seen, various scientific agencies of different countries have been trying hard to keep the CRISPR genie inside the bag... Dr. He Jiankui opened the bag wide open.
If they do, it'll be the best god damned sandwich you will ever taste.
I've had two girls make me a bologna sandwich. I was the bologna.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The CCR5-delta32 mutation doesn't provide absolute immunity to HIV... it just provides immunity to somewhere between 86 and 94% of HIV strains documented to exist "in the wild". Think of CCR5 as being like a T-cell's docking port for HIV (or alternatively, its identification beacon). Without the CCR5 gene, most HIV virions are either metaphorically unable to "grab on" and "dock" (to infect the T-cell), or are unable to even recognize it as an infectable cell in the first place.
Everyone has two copies of the CCR5 gene. If one copy has the delta-32 mutation, the person isn't immune at all to HIV... but could conceivably survive for a very, very long time after a short (but intense) primary infection. Basically, 50% of the person's T-cells express the gene, and 50% don't. After infection, half are infected and killed, but the remainder are primarily the nearly-uninfectable half. This is why, back in the late 80s and 1990s, there were a small -- but noteworthy -- cohort of HIV+ individuals who didn't progress beyond a certain point to AIDS.
Also, a CCR5-delta32 mutation isn't quite a "get out of jail free" card. People with the mutation, especially a heterozygous (2-copy) mutation, are ultra-vulnerable to respiratory illness. Therein lies another part of the late-80s/early-90s original HIV mystery... people with strong immune systems were easily infected, but people who'd been sick with one illness or another from the moment they were born seemed to be nearly immune to HIV. That's why... they WERE, and their life-long endless sequence of respiratory infections were the biggest drawback.
It's also important to note that late in an advanced HIV infection, HIV undergoes a mutation of its own that allows it to infect cells regardless of CCR5 deletion. The main defense against such mutated HIV is the fact that the same mutation that allows HIV to infect cells with a CCR5-delta32 mutation ALSO makes it less-capable of infecting a new host. The good news is that even the mutated HIV is readily-susceptible to modern HIV meds (and in fact, is generally EASIER to bring under control because the mutated virus itself is less robust and virulent).
Observations comparing this to sickle-cell anemia are apt. Back before effective HIV meds existed, having one or two copies of CCR5 with a delta-32 mutation could mean the difference between living long enough for real treatments to become available, and dying a horrible death within a few months or years. Nowadays, having one mutated copy is almost purely a drawback... a lifetime of respiratory infections, with benefits that are largely moot thanks to the effectiveness of modern HIV meds (which, for all intents and purposes, ARE a cure for "AIDS", even if they aren't literally a cure for "HIV").
Having two copies is somewhat of a bonus if you're otherwise at high risk for HIV infection... but once again, modern meds have largely negated THIS scenario too. If you take Truvada daily (Google: "PrEP"), your likelihood of catching HIV is practically nonexistent. In roughly 5 years, fewer than a half-dozen people worldwide who have been confirmed to have actually taken Truvada reliably have become infected... and AFAIK, all of those cases involved sex with someone who had a fairly advanced case of untreated full-blown AIDS. Putting it into perspective, you'd almost have to be willfully-indifferent and have LITERALLY no standards for whom you'll have sex with, because CCR5-mutated HIV is among the MOST susceptible to HIV meds(*).
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Warning: very non politically-correct example with WAY too much information follows:
(*) Putting it less-delicately, you'd have to be a total manwhore-pig-cum-dump who likes being blindfolded, tied up, and and indiscriminately taking anonymous loads from random strangers that include crazy homeless people who are visibly ill. We aren't talking "active sex life" here, we're talking "complete abdication of anything that resembles common sense and/or having any standards WHATSOEVER". I think one of the confirmed cases admitted that he collected semen from several dozen guys with high viral loads, then gave himself an enema with it. Put another way... if you repeatedly taunt an angry pitbull, eventually you're going to slip on his dogshit and earn a Darwin Award.
CRISPR-edited babies, combined with the massive wealth divides of a class-based society, will further stratify humans into Morlocks and Eloi.
Depends on how it's implemented. This could be a state-run program that provides everyone the same set of enhancements. CRISPR made its mark in biotech for being relatively cheap so it wouldn't even cost all that much. Though given how much push back there is for mandatory vaccines, I imagine GM babies will spur even more conspiracies.