wolfgang784 t1_iw3cwvj wrote on November 12, 2022 at 5:22 PM

Reply to comment by Cersad in How do medical researchers obtain lab animals with diseases like specific forms of cancer which arise spontaneously? Do they raise thousands of apes and hope some eventually develop the disease? by userbrn1

There's that Chinese doctor who illegally edited two human babies (twin girls iirc?) with CRISPR in an attempt to make them immune to something, HIV or something along those lines.

Nobody else knew and he lied to the parents about what he was doing, so the study wasn't cut off at an early developmental stage like usual. The news didn't break till after the children were already born, so now they get to enjoy lots of testing and study for the rest of their lives.

So far they seem healthy and like the immunity part indeed worked, but the thing the doctor edited also does/effects more than he knew/expected and it is theorized that the girls may develop/suffer from a different issue (I can't remember what exactly) as a result.

CrateDane t1_iw3i3q7 wrote on November 12, 2022 at 5:57 PM

It was a knockout of the gene for CCR5, a coreceptor for (some types of) HIV. That gives resistance to infection. The coreceptor does not seem to be that important, as some people are in fact born without a functional copy of the gene and appear to be normal (aside from resistance to HIV infection).

We just don't really know enough yet to say whether you're better off with or without CCR5, even putting all the ethical issues aside.

triffid_boy t1_iw3ram7 wrote on November 12, 2022 at 7:01 PM

CCR5 is useful in cold/flu response and that's a hell of a lot more common than HIV. even in people with close contact with someone with HIV. Hell these days colds and flus are more of a faff than HIV is for those people infected but taking PReP!!

It was such a ludicrously ethically dumb experiment.