A genetic variation present in the DNA of the twin girls created using CRISPR gene editing technology in late 2018 is now linked to a higher risk of premature death, according to a study published in Nature Medicine on June 3.
Chinese scientist He Jiankui, PhD, announced in November 2018 — to much criticism and condemnation — that he had created the first babies from a CRISPR-edited embryo, with the goal of recreating a variation in the CCR5 gene that has been linked to HIV resistance.
In the new study, however, researchers at the University of California Berkeley found that alterations in the CCR5 gene could have serious adverse effects, including a 21 percent higher chance of dying before the age of 76. The study's authors suggest this could be because CCR5 modifications are also linked to higher susceptibility to viruses such as West Nile and influenza. Despite these findings, however, it is still unknown whether these effects are consistent across races and ethnicities, and therefore how the modification will actually affect the CRISPR-created twins.
"There are many reasons not to make CRISPR babies at this stage. And one of them is the fact that we can't really predict the effect of the mutations that we induce," lead author Rasmus Nielsen, PhD, told NPR.
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