China gene-edited baby experiment 'may have created unintended mutations'
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China gene-edited baby experiment 'may have
created unintended mutations'
He Jiankui’s original research,
published for the first time, could have failed, scientists say
Agence France-Presse Tue 3 Dec 2019 23.43 EST
The gene editing performed on Chinese twins to immunise them
against HIV may have failed and created unintended mutations, scientists have
said after the original research was made public for the first time.
He made expansive claims of a
medical breakthrough that could “control the HIV epidemic”, but it was not
clear whether it had even been successful in its intended purpose – immunising
the babies against the virus – because the team did not in fact reproduce the gene
mutation that confers this resistance.
A small percentage of people are
born with immunity because of a mutation in a gene called CCR5 and it was this
gene that He had claimed to have targeted using a powerful editing tool known
as Crispr which has revolutionised the field since 2012.
Fyodor Urnov, a genome-editing scientist at
the University of California, Berkeley told the MIT Technology Review: “The
claim they have reproduced the prevalent CCR5 variant is a blatant
misrepresentation of the actual data and can only be described by one term: a
deliberate falsehood.
“The study shows that the research
team instead failed to reproduce the prevalent CCR5 variant.”
While the team targeted the right
gene, they did not replicate the “Delta 32” variation required, instead
creating novel edits whose effects are not clear.
Moreover, Crispr remains an imperfect tool because
it can lead to unwanted or “off-target” edits, making its use in humans hugely
controversial. Here, the researchers claimed to have searched for such effects
in the early-stage embryos and found just one – however it would be impossible
to carry out a comprehensive search without inspecting each of the embryo’s
cells, and thus destroying it.
The parents’ lack of access to any
kind of fertility treatment might have motivated them to take part in the
experiment despite the huge risks to their children, Jeanne O’Brien, a
reproductive endocrinologist at Shady Grove Fertility told the MIT Technology
Review.
The father was HIV positive, which
carries a significant social stigma in China and makes it almost impossible to
have access to fertility treatment, even though a well-established technique
known as “sperm washing” prevents the infection being passed to unborn
children.
The authors also appeared to have
taken steps to make it hard to find the family, like leaving the names of the
fertility doctors off the paper, and including a false date of birth. He
claimed November 2018 while multiple reports have indicated it was October
2018.
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