Parents agree
Potential parents of Russia's first CRISPR child have been found
Polina Loseva, N+1
The first volunteers appeared in the Russian experiment on genetic editing of embryos. This was reported to N+1 by the project manager, biologist Denis Rebrikov. According to him, the expectant mother has already started the process of obtaining eggs. Fertilization, editing and analysis of the results will take about a month, after that Rebrikov plans to submit a request to the Ministry of Health to get permission to edit embryos for this married couple.
(In a July interview in the New Scientist magazine, Rebrikov said that he had already found five married couples willing to take part in the experiment, and in the coming weeks he plans to contact the relevant authorities to obtain permission for experiments – VM).
In November 2018, Chinese biologist Jiankui He announced the birth of the first genetically modified children. These are two girls in whose genome the CRISPR/Cas9 molecular scissors were supposed to introduce the CCR5Δ32 mutation and thereby make them resistant to HIV. Shortly after that, Denis Rebrikov, a Russian biologist, vice-rector of the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (RNIMU) and head of the genome editing laboratory at the Kulakov Scientific Center, said in an interview with Republic that he was planning a similar experiment with the same gene. Rebrikov and colleagues already have an article on this topic on their account, however, they worked out the technique only on "defective" embryos, which could not be used for fertilization anyway. In an interview with the portal "Attic", an embryologist from the Rebrikova group said that scientists need about another year to check the safety of their method, and only after that they will be able to try genetic editing on real patients.
In the summer of 2019, Rebrikov changed the target for editing: he declared that he was ready to fight hereditary deafness caused by a mutation in the GJB2 gene. According to the scientist, his team had already conducted preliminary experiments and at that time was in search of a married couple who would become the first participants in a real genome editing experiment.
Today in conversation with N+1 Rebrikov said that they had already found such a family. "This is a deaf couple," he says, "they have the same mutation, homozygous (both copies of the GJB2 gene are broken – note N+1), their first child is also deaf. They volunteered to be such volunteers, to try to make a second – hearing. They have entered [the experiment] now so that we can check on them that everything is fine."
The first phase of the experiment is a trial. "While we are not saying that we will transfer something tomorrow (that is, plant an embryo in a woman's uterus - note N+1)," explains Rebrikov, "we collect gametes, make an embryo, edit, and see if we have off–target activity (non–targeted DNA editing – note N+1). If not, we will request approval from the Ministry of Health for this particular pair."
"[It will be] a request for permission on an individual basis," he continues, "for a specific patient, [to] apply a drug that is either not registered in the Russian Federation for use, or even a supernova drug."
Until that day, according to the scientist, there is about a month left. Now the expectant mother is at the stage of hormonal induction: she receives an increased dose of hormones so that several eggs ovulate in her ovaries at once. As soon as they are ready, an immediate experiment will begin. "If the induction goes well and there will be cells in about a week," Rebrikov calculates, "then further... in another week there will be embryos, in another week and a half there will be the result of testing for genome–wide sequencing. And after that I will submit [an application to the Ministry of Health]."
It is difficult to predict the decision of the Ministry of Health and the time it will take to consider the application. Vera Izhevskaya, Deputy Director of the Bochkov Medical and Genetic Research Center, noted in a comment for N+1 that "there is no direct ban on genetic engineering manipulations with embryo genomes in Russian legislation. There is also no mechanism for monitoring the implementation of existing laws and bringing to justice for their violations."
Rebrikov himself is optimistic. "I think they won't delay it too much," he says. – In general, the Ministry of Health is waiting for us, there was no horrific reaction on their part. They say: "Yes, submit, we will consider it.""
Genetic editing in relation to humans remains an extremely controversial technology. Many scientists believe that the technique is not yet accurate enough to guarantee the safety of patients.
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