A potentially monumental breakthrough in genetic
science by Korean and U.S. researchers.
For the first time, scientists have successfully
removed from a human embryo... a piece of
DNA that passes down heart disease.
Park Ji-won explains.
Researchers at Korea's Institute for Basic
Science, America's Oregon Health and Science
University and the Salk Institute have used
a technique involving CRISPR-Cas9,... a type
of gene-editing tool,... to correct a genetic
mutation for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
The heart disorder affects one in every 500
people,... and those who have the mutation
have a 50:50 chance of passing it on their
children.
For the study,... which was published in the
latest issue of the scientific journal Nature,...
defective sperm were injected into eggs from
a healthy woman and CRISPR-Cas9 was used to
correct the genetic flaw.
"So it's actually molecular scissors that
would allow you to direct the scissors into
a very specific site and specific gene, in
this case we would direct into the mutant
gene and induce a cut in the DNA.
The embryos usually will respond by repairing
this cut."
The results showed that over 70 percent of
embryos successfully removed the disease,
while the other 27 percent of the embryos
turned out to have further unexpected mutations.
The study was conducted in the U.S. as Korea's
law prohibits genetic modification of human
embryos.
The Korean scientists, instead, were in charge
of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology and analysis
of the results.
The Korean researchers stressed that it paved
a new way for preventing incurable genetic
disorders,... and highlighted the necessity
of changing the nation's law on bioethics.
"As this research has proved that a mutant
gene or disease gene can be precisely corrected,...
we can now study on a more diverse range of
diseases.
In that regard, I believe regulations need
to be loosened."
The gene-editing technology, however,... is
still a matter of controversy even among scientists.
"It's such a big deal to actually manipulate
the genome of an embryo.
We don't actually know what happens when that
embryo grows into a baby or when that baby
grows into an adult.
So these are some big unknowns that it will
take years to understand and we're not really
ready for this to get launched."
With so many unknowns,.. both in ethics and
in the experiment's results,... it seems further
research is still needed.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News.
