The rapid developments of science and technology in China over recent decades, particularly in biomedical research, have brought forward serious challenges regarding ethical governance. Recently, Jian-kui HE, a Chines...The rapid developments of science and technology in China over recent decades, particularly in biomedical research, have brought forward serious challenges regarding ethical governance. Recently, Jian-kui HE, a Chinese scientist, claimed to have "created" the first gene-edited babies, designed to be naturally immune to the human immunodeficiency virus(HIV). The news immediately triggered widespread criticism, denouncement, and debate over the scientific and ethical legitimacy of HE’s genetic experiments. China’s guidelines and regulations have banned germline genome editing on human embryos for clinical use because of scientific and ethical concerns, in accordance with the international consensus. HE’s human experimentation has not only violated these Chinese regulations, but also breached other ethical and regulatory norms. These include questionable scientific value, unreasonable risk-benefit ratio, illegitimate ethics review, invalid informed consent, and regulatory misconduct. This series of ethical failings of HE and his team reveal the institutional failure of the current ethics governance system which largely depends on scientist’s self-regulation. The incident highlights the need for urgent improvement of ethics governance at all levels, the enforcement of technical and ethical guidelines, and the establishment of laws relating to such bioethical issues.展开更多
Objective:He-Zhao deficiency was originally described as a severe type of nonsyndromic hypodontia,and the causative gene locus was mapped to chromosome 10q11.2.The aim of this study was to identify potential genetic m...Objective:He-Zhao deficiency was originally described as a severe type of nonsyndromic hypodontia,and the causative gene locus was mapped to chromosome 10q11.2.The aim of this study was to identify potential genetic mutations that could cause He-Zhao deficiency.Methods:Patients with He-Zhao deficiency and their unaffected relatives of the large pedigree were investigated.The whole-exome sequencing using next-generation sequencing was employed to identify genetic variants.The data generated from the whole-exome sequencing using the Illumina Novaseq 6000 system were further analyzed by Burrows-Wheeler Aligner software,Sequence Alignment/Map tools and ANNOVAR tool.In vitro luciferase assay was used to investigate the effect of the detected mutation on gene expression.R environment was used to conduct t-tests.The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Bio-X Institutes,Shanghai Jiao Tong University(M2011004).Results:The exomes of five patients with He-Zhao deficiency and two of their unaffected relatives identified a mutation in PRKG1αas the molecular etiology of the disease.The variant c.-144 C>A of PRKG1 isoform 1 cosegregated with permanent tooth agenesis in 93 family members who were older than 12,at which time the primary teeth should have been replaced with permanent teeth.Functional studies suggested that the mutant allele promotes gene transcription by increasing its promoter activity.Conclusion:c.-144 C>A variant of PRKG1αinvolving odontoclast-associated root resorption is responsible for He-Zhao deficiency,unlike other forms of hypodontia,which typically involve odontoblast dysfunction.展开更多
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.L1824000)
文摘The rapid developments of science and technology in China over recent decades, particularly in biomedical research, have brought forward serious challenges regarding ethical governance. Recently, Jian-kui HE, a Chinese scientist, claimed to have "created" the first gene-edited babies, designed to be naturally immune to the human immunodeficiency virus(HIV). The news immediately triggered widespread criticism, denouncement, and debate over the scientific and ethical legitimacy of HE’s genetic experiments. China’s guidelines and regulations have banned germline genome editing on human embryos for clinical use because of scientific and ethical concerns, in accordance with the international consensus. HE’s human experimentation has not only violated these Chinese regulations, but also breached other ethical and regulatory norms. These include questionable scientific value, unreasonable risk-benefit ratio, illegitimate ethics review, invalid informed consent, and regulatory misconduct. This series of ethical failings of HE and his team reveal the institutional failure of the current ethics governance system which largely depends on scientist’s self-regulation. The incident highlights the need for urgent improvement of ethics governance at all levels, the enforcement of technical and ethical guidelines, and the establishment of laws relating to such bioethical issues.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.81971254 and 81771440)Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project(No.2017SHZDZX01).
文摘Objective:He-Zhao deficiency was originally described as a severe type of nonsyndromic hypodontia,and the causative gene locus was mapped to chromosome 10q11.2.The aim of this study was to identify potential genetic mutations that could cause He-Zhao deficiency.Methods:Patients with He-Zhao deficiency and their unaffected relatives of the large pedigree were investigated.The whole-exome sequencing using next-generation sequencing was employed to identify genetic variants.The data generated from the whole-exome sequencing using the Illumina Novaseq 6000 system were further analyzed by Burrows-Wheeler Aligner software,Sequence Alignment/Map tools and ANNOVAR tool.In vitro luciferase assay was used to investigate the effect of the detected mutation on gene expression.R environment was used to conduct t-tests.The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Bio-X Institutes,Shanghai Jiao Tong University(M2011004).Results:The exomes of five patients with He-Zhao deficiency and two of their unaffected relatives identified a mutation in PRKG1αas the molecular etiology of the disease.The variant c.-144 C>A of PRKG1 isoform 1 cosegregated with permanent tooth agenesis in 93 family members who were older than 12,at which time the primary teeth should have been replaced with permanent teeth.Functional studies suggested that the mutant allele promotes gene transcription by increasing its promoter activity.Conclusion:c.-144 C>A variant of PRKG1αinvolving odontoclast-associated root resorption is responsible for He-Zhao deficiency,unlike other forms of hypodontia,which typically involve odontoblast dysfunction.
