He Jiankui again
UM-He Jiankui's children may be "artificially gifted"
Polina Loseva, "The Attic"
Scientists have linked a gene that a Chinese scientist edited in his experiments with brain health and intellectual abilities
Last November, the birth of the first genetically modified children was announced for the first time. The CCR5 gene became the target of editing: the corresponding protein contributes to the infection of HIV lymphocytes, and a mutation in it, on the contrary, gives people resistance to infection. However, new research has shown that the same mutation in CCR5 improves brain recovery after stroke and enhances cognitive abilities (at least in mice). Thus, HIV resistance may not be the only new property of GM children.
He Jiankui was criticized for everything after his report on the genetic editing of children: in addition to ethical issues, the scientific community was outraged by the sloppy preparation for experiments, the inaccuracy of manipulations with genes and the possibility of unforeseen consequences. The articles of the Chinese scientist were not accepted for publication, he himself is being held under arrest, his potential colleagues from other countries are being checked for involvement in experiments, but attempts to comprehend what he actually did continue.
Even in the early days of the scandal, scientists drew attention to the fact that the CCR5 gene, which was edited by the Chinese, can participate in other processes besides the penetration of HIV virus particles into human cells. For example, mice deprived of their CCR5 analogue suffer worse from influenza infection, and in humans, a mutation in this gene is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia.
CCR5 research began long before He Jiankui began his experiments. For example, he should have known that back in 2016, mice knocked out by this gene showed a better learning ability than the control group. Scientists working on this problem have found that the signaling pathways that CCR5 triggers suppress learning and memory processes in the hippocampus of animals. So, if you block this protein (as some modern HIV medications do), the plasticity of neurons in the brain will increase. And now clinical trials have already opened, during which the CCR5 blocker is planned to be used in stroke survivors.
In the meantime, patients are only being recruited for trials, American and Israeli scientists have collected statistics on people with a natural mutation in CCR5 (the one that Jiankui tried to recreate) and their fates after a stroke. The results of their work were published in the latest issue of Cell. The authors of the article examined 446 patients in the framework of the Israeli TABASCO project, 68 of whom were carriers of the mutation. And if for the first time after the stroke, all patients demonstrated approximately equal cognitive abilities, then a year later the group with the mutation overtook the control group in attention, memory and speech function.
Of course, to claim that He Jiankui created "genetically modified intellectuals" - perhaps unintentionally – would be premature. The data we have is fragmentary and insufficient for such conclusions. Nevertheless, carriers of the CCR5 mutation, which were studied in the TABASCO project, had an increased level of education compared to the control group. And the authors of the work themselves told MIT Technologies magazine that there is an interest in this gene in Silicon Valley to create "designer" children with high intelligence.
Thus, two bad forebodings came true at once: the edited gene turned out to be more multifaceted than its editor had assumed, and the modified children themselves probably received some additional properties, and in an area that the scientific community is most afraid to invade.
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