首例免疫艾滋病基因編輯嬰兒誕生 深圳啟動倫理問題調查

就在第二屆國際人類基因組編輯峰會召開前一天，一則消息震驚了學術界。據媒體報道，“世界首例免疫艾滋病的基因編輯嬰兒”出生了。

11月26日，來自中國深圳的科學家賀建奎宣布，一對名為露露和娜娜的基因編輯嬰兒于11月在中國健康誕生。這對雙胞胎的一個基因經過修改，使她們出生后即能天然抵抗艾滋病，這是世界首例免疫艾滋病的基因編輯嬰兒。然而消息發(fā)布后，引發(fā)了巨大的爭議。國家衛(wèi)健委表示將對此依法依規(guī)處理。

中國一位科學家?guī)椭晃荒赣H成功生下了世界首例免疫艾滋病基因編輯嬰兒，此事在公眾和學界引發(fā)了巨大的爭議。

In an online video posted on Monday, He Jiankui, a biological researcher, announced that twin baby girls, Lulu and Nana, born healthy a few weeks ago, were conceived through in vitro fertilization(IVF) and genetically edited for immunity to HIV infection.

在本周一上傳的一段網絡視頻中，生物學者賀建奎宣布，雙胞胎女孩露露和娜娜幾周前健康出生。這兩名嬰兒的基因經過了編輯，以使她們能夠天然抵抗艾滋病。她們的母親是通過試管嬰兒技術懷孕生產的。

據悉，研究人員們在受精卵中，通過基因編輯技術，對CCR5基因進行了修改。CCR5基因是HIV病毒入侵人體所需的主要輔助受體之一。理論上，如果這個基因出現(xiàn)變異或缺失，就有可能關閉HIV病毒入侵人體的大門，也就是說，基因編輯后，嬰兒能夠天生免疫艾滋病。

"The mother started her pregnancy by regular IVF with one difference. Right after sending her husband's sperm into her eggs, we also sent in a little bit of protein and instructions for gene surgery," said He, from Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, speaking in the video. "Lulu and Nana were just a single cell when the surgery removed the doorway through which HIV enters to infect people."

來自廣東省深圳市南方科技大學的賀建奎在視頻中說：“孩子的母親通過常規(guī)試管嬰兒技術受孕，但有一點不同的是，在我們將丈夫的精子注入卵子后，還注射了一點點蛋白質和指引信號去做基因手術。在露露和娜娜還是單細胞的時候，通過手術關閉了艾滋病毒感染的大門。”

各方反應

深圳衛(wèi)計委

The Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission said on Monday that it had not received any ethical assessment application for the study, which is a prerequisite for such experiments.

深圳衛(wèi)計委本周一表示，并未收到有關該項目的倫理審查報備，而這是開展此類實驗的先決條件。

The Associated Press reported on Monday that He sought and received approval for his project from the ethics committee of Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital, and an approval document from the hospital circulated online on Monday.

據美聯(lián)社本周一報道，賀建奎得到了深圳和美婦兒科醫(yī)院醫(yī)學倫理委員會的批準，開展該項目。該醫(yī)院的一份批準文件也被上傳到網上。

深圳和美婦兒科醫(yī)院總經理程珍介紹，這個實驗不是在和美婦兒科醫(yī)院做的，孩子也不是在和美婦兒科醫(yī)院出生的，至于網上流傳的那張申請書，醫(yī)院也不了解情況，目前正在調查核實。

However, the Shenzhen commission said the hospital's ethics committee was not valid because the hospital did not register the committee's establishment with the commission as required.

然而，深圳衛(wèi)計委表示，該醫(yī)院的醫(yī)學倫理委員會未按要求進行備案，因此不是合法機構。

The commission has started an ethics investigation and will release the results to the public, it said.

深圳衛(wèi)計委已啟動對該事件涉及倫理問題的調查，有關調查結果將及時向公眾進行公布。

南方科技大學

Southern University of Science and Technology said on Monday that it was not aware of the research, as He did not report it to the school.

南方科技大學周一表示，賀建奎并未向學校報告這一項目，因此學校并不知情。

The university said the academic council of its biology department, where He works as an associate professor, thinks that the research seriously violated academic ethics and rules. The university said it would immediately set up an independent investigation team for the matter.

南方科技大學表示，生物系學術委員會認為這一研究嚴重違背了學術倫理和學術規(guī)范。南方科技大學將立即針對此事成立獨立調查組。賀建奎曾在該校生物系擔任副教授。

國家衛(wèi)健委

國家衛(wèi)健委對“基因編輯嬰兒”事件高度重視，回應稱立即要求廣東省衛(wèi)生健康委認真調查核實，本著對人民健康高度負責和科學原則，依法依規(guī)處理，并及時向社會公開結果。

Bai Hua, head of Baihualin, a nongovernmental organization that promotes the interests of people with HIV/AIDS, said on Monday that the parents of the twins were likely to have HIV.

白樺林全國聯(lián)盟創(chuàng)始人“白樺”本周一稱，雙胞胎嬰兒的父母可能患有艾滋病。這家非政府機構致力于推進艾滋病感染者的利益。

He Jiankui spoke with Bai in April 2017, hoping to find people with HIV for the research, Bai said, adding that he spread the news and about 200 showed interest.

賀建奎在2017年4月聯(lián)系到該機構，希望尋找艾滋病感染者參與研究。“白樺”還說，他轉發(fā)了這一消息，有大約200人表達了參與意愿。

"Of the group infected with HIV, many have special conditions such as inability to conceive naturally, but the reality is that they cannot have babies through IVF in hospitals," he said. "Many of them thought the research gave them a chance to have babies who do not have the risk of getting HIV."

他說：“在艾滋病感染者群體中，很多人有特殊情況，比如不能自然懷孕，但現(xiàn)實情況是他們無法在醫(yī)院做試管嬰兒。一些人認為這一研究給了他們生兒育女的機會，孩子也不會有感染艾滋病的風險。”

基因編輯嬰兒引爭議

基因編輯嬰兒誕生的消息宣布后引來多方質疑，質疑的內容集中于該項研究涉及的倫理問題、必要性和安全性。

On Monday, more than 120 scholars from prestigious universities and institutes from China and abroad such as Tsinghua University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology strongly condemned the research in a signed statement, saying it lacks effective ethics oversight and amounts to human experiments.

本周一，超過120名來自國內外著名大學及機構的學者發(fā)布聯(lián)合聲明，強烈譴責這一研究，其中包括來自清華大學和麻省理工學院的一些學者。聲明中稱，該研究缺乏有效的倫理監(jiān)管，相當于拿人類做實驗。

In the statement published on weibo.com, they said any attempt to change human embryos with genetic editing and allow the birth of such babies entails a high degree of risk due to inaccuracies in existing editing technologies.

他們在發(fā)布在微博上的聲明中說，由于目前基因編輯技術的不確定性，直接進行人胚胎改造并試圖產生嬰兒的任何嘗試都存在巨大風險。

有專家表示，“基因編輯嬰兒”的做法不僅僅是激進，更是冒失，CCR5的基因即使被敲除，也無法完全阻斷艾滋病毒感染。從倫理上講，在CCR5基因編輯不能保證100%安全的情況下，堅決不可以用于人體。

相關消息發(fā)布后，《科技日報》對此提出了四點疑問——

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said: "Genetic editing technology is far from mature and could have unforeseen consequences for the subjects."

中國疾控中心流行病學首席專家吳尊友說：“基因編輯技術遠未成熟，對被試者可能產生的影響無法預見。”

Some researchers are trying to use genetic editing technology to treat people infected with HIV, so the virus will not replicate and be transmitted to others, he said. "Animal experiments should be done to assess gains and risks for the subjects, before the possibility of doing this with humans."

他說，一些研究人員正嘗試使用基因編輯技術治療艾滋病感染者，以使病毒不再復制和傳染他人。他說：“類似的操作在考慮進行人體實驗之前需要進行長期的動物實驗，評估收益和風險。”

Some scientists in Hong Kong for the summit think it could induce serious problems for a person's immune system, while others think people should not be overly scared because it would not affect the core genome.

一些在香港參會的科學家認為，基因編輯可能使人體的免疫系統(tǒng)出現(xiàn)嚴重問題。還有些學者認為，人們也不必過度驚慌，因為這不會影響到核心的基因組。

Tsui Lap-chee, president of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong, said if one gene is edited, it will affect others that interact with it. And the whole genome, a collection of genes, may also be affected.

香港科學院院長徐立之說，如果某個基因被編輯，將影響到與之相互作用的其他基因。那么整個基因組，一大批基因，都可能被影響。

Robin Lovell-Badge, group leader and head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, said "gene editing is not something to be scared about", and he doesn't think what He has done will affect a human's core genome. Side effects may not be very serious as there are millions of healthy people with the exact same mutation.

峰會小組長、弗朗西斯·克里克研究所干細胞生物學和發(fā)育遺產學分部負責人羅賓-羅弗爾-巴杰說：“不必對基因編輯感到恐慌。”他并不認為賀建奎的研究將會影響到人類的核心基因組?；蚓庉嫷母弊饔每赡芤矝]那么嚴重，因為有數(shù)百萬健康人其實都攜帶有相同的基因突變。