After the UK authorities first authorized the CRISPR / Cas9 genome of the human embryo in Europe in early February, the UK Home Office released a guide for researchers growing human organs in animals or using hybrid creatures to study treatments for human diseases.
The document was prepared in consultation with the Office of Human Tissue Use, the Office of Human Fertilization and Embryology and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.
The guidelines are about categorizing experiments in a given area according to their degree of ambiguity. Low priority will henceforth be given to research that has become commonplace, such as using mice with human cancers to study the effects of drugs.
High priority is given to experiments for which it is necessary to prove their scientific value and ethical acceptability. In this case, we are talking about experiments on primates, transplanting human brain tissue into animals, or creating animals that resemble humans in appearance.
Such experiments will henceforth require substantiation of their health benefits. As a result, scientists will be able to legally conduct experiments on animals with a brain "similar to a human", or with the use of human eggs and sperm in animals.
Simplifying the rules for creating human-animal hybrids will make the UK a world center for such research, which could lead to major discoveries aimed at eliminating the shortage of donor organs, The Times notes. The publication explains that new technologies will help in the future to grow organs to individual orders in sheep or pigs.
In January of this year, it became known that Chinese experts have created genetically modified monkeys that exhibit symptoms characteristic of people with autism spectrum disorders.
The experiment began in 2010, when a group of scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, using genetic engineering, created macaques - carriers of the human gene MECP2. People with a double copy of this gene, as well as carriers of certain mutations in this gene, show symptoms of autism.
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Scientists inserted the MECP2 gene into macaque eggs before fertilization. The resulting embryos were then transplanted into female macaques. As a result, eight genetically modified babies were born, which had between one and seven extra copies of MECP2. In addition, several babies were born dead - studies have shown that extra copies showed up in the brain.
A year later, the behavior of the monkeys began to show signs of autism: the animals ran in circles in strange ways. Moreover, if the path of such a monkey was blocked by another monkey, it either jumped over it, or went around, but then returned to the circle.
A series of tests showed that all the genetically modified monkeys obtained during the experiment showed at least one autism syndrome, such as repetitive movements or antisocial behavior. At the same time, the symptoms were more pronounced in males, just like in people with disorders in the MECP2 gene. However, the results did not convince the reviewers - in 2013, the work written on the basis of the experiment was not accepted for publication.
Scientists continued their work and began to create a second generation of macaques. When the monkeys were 27 months old - before they reached puberty - the researchers took the testicles from the males and brought them to the state of an adult. For this, the testicles were transplanted onto the backs of castrated mice. The sperm obtained in this way was used to fertilize eggs taken from ordinary monkeys that were not genetically engineered. The newborn offspring at the age of 11 months also began to show antisocial behavior.