Science Gene editing to end autism - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love CRISPR

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...nificantly-reduced-breakthrough-gene-editing/

Autism traits may be “edited” out using new genetic techniques, scientists have said, following a successful trial.

Researchers are hailing a breakthrough after they used cutting-edge gene editing to to significantly reduce repetitive behaviour associated with the disorder.

The technique, which was performed on mice, could also be developed to treat conditions ranging from opioid addiction and neuropathic pain to schizophrenia and epileptic seizures.

Scientists injected gold nanoparticles covered in a “forest” of DNA chains to alter the the genetic code of mouse models with a form of autism called fragile X syndrome (FXS).

The technique, CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, resulted in in a 30 per cent drop in repetitive digging, and a 70 reduction in leaping, both indicative of autistic behaviour.

Because the editing DNA was introduced attached to gold particles, the team were able to control how much of the crucial Cas9 protein was delivered, in contrast to previous failed attempts using viruses.

"There are no treatments or cures for autism yet, and many of the clinical trials of small-molecule treatments targeting proteins that cause autism have failed," said study leader Hye Young Lee, an assistant professor of cellular and integrative physiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.


"This is the first case where we were able to edit a causal gene for autism in the brain and show rescue of the behavioral symptoms."


Autism spectrum disorder is a complex developmental disorder, with a strong genetic component, which manifests during childhood.

It is characterised by deficits in the domain of social interaction and communication, stereotyped behaviour, delayed speech and language and can also be associated with intellectual disability.

There are around 700,000 people on the autism spectrum in the UK - more than one in 100 - and when including families, it is a part of daily life for 2.8 million people.

The results are published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

I hope this doesn't get the same reaction hearing aids and cochlear implants get from deaf people.

Is the reaction you're talking about having to ask "what?" several times?

 

[killmeme]

Autism is like ADD back in the 90s. It's a thing, but the symptoms are vague enough that anyone can make them fit themselves. Plus it gives an excuse for doing poorly in school.

I mean, is there anyone who can look at the list of autism symptoms and not find a thing or two that fits? And if you're desperate to be special somehow, then why not diagnose yourself with aspergers? Before, you were an annoying asshole, now you've got a disability you can demand people pander to.

Think ADD was always just a way to get kids on drugs so they'll stop being little shits in class and make their parents feel like they are doing a better job then they probably do.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Think ADD was always just a way to get kids on drugs so they'll stop being little shits in class and make their parents feel like they are doing a better job then they probably do.

It was also a thing pushed a lot by teachers on students who didn't actually have the condition, and if parents didn't cowtow they'd use child protective services as their personal flail to brow beat the parents into drugging their kids unnecessarily. '90s were a great time to be a kid, shitty time to be a student.

 

[UptownRuckus]

I imagine it's still years and years away from perfection, however I'd use it to cure cancer...I mean Autism. I mean...let's take away the tard Gene from parents. Then we won't have anymore tard children

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Just imagine the sort of super-human powers we could gain from CRISPR. Imagine living way longer, being more athletic, smarter, ect. I'd take CRISPR treatments in a heartbeat if they were perfected.

Hopefully it will be used to help drag out our lifespan long enough for science to make the nanomachines which literally will allow us live forever.

 

[spiritofamermaid]

Is the reaction you're talking about having to ask "what?" several times?

Nah, there's a culture about it and people say that if your kid gets an implant then you're destroying "deaf culture" and other stuff.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7866/5a12b04ffe800461e25e6a8c306fab765b70.pdf

 

[Mariposa Electrique]

So, will this machine stop geezers from banging their lunchboxes at each other?

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Nah, there's a culture about it and people say that if your kid gets an implant then you're destroying "deaf culture" and other stuff.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7866/5a12b04ffe800461e25e6a8c306fab765b70.pdf

I don't think it's a good "culture" if its continued existence relies upon hobbling young children and robbing them of the right to choose. But I guess I'm just a nazi.

 

[Neil]

Ngl sounds too good to be true, but if it is, I'd be really happy about it.

Everybody focuses on the lighter forms of Autism, such as aspergers, but never take into consideration anybody lower, like nonverbals or other. If we could find these people lower on the spectrum some help, the world would be a better place.

But enough feels posting from me, I'm just waiting to see the first self-diagnosed tumblrina compare this to eugenic murder.

 

[Haramburger]

I don't think it's a good "culture" if its continued existence relies upon hobbling young children and robbing them of the right to choose. But I guess I'm just a nazi.

You're not thinking in Tard Economics. Do you:
• Opt into an expensive surgery to try and be normal (spend money you don't have, can't collect pity bux because your kid can hear now)
• Stay pure, and whine about your kid's disability on facebook (free, no expensive surgery, can beg for pity bux from the public AND disability from gov't)

The first option also only gives you one "awwwww" video on social media where the kid hears for the first time, and there's too many of those to be profitable or emotionally fulfilling for long. When your kid stays deaf you can whine about it every frickin' day and get pity posts and delicious sympathy for years. And if you kid wanders into traffic because they can't hear the car coming? Jackpot!

...don't ever think like this normally.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

The thing about autism that makes it cure-worthy is that it limits your intelligence. It's not just a "different way" of thinking, it's an inhibited form of thinking.

Just imagine the sort of super-human powers we could gain from CRISPR. Imagine living way longer, being more athletic, smarter, ect. I'd take CRISPR treatments in a heartbeat if they were perfected.

The CRISPies will be as gods. The UnCRISPied will be no more than cattle.

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

Nah, there's a culture about it and people say that if your kid gets an implant then you're destroying "deaf culture" and other stuff.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7866/5a12b04ffe800461e25e6a8c306fab765b70.pdf

Why don't we also poke out their eyes so they can experience blind culture?

 

[Ravenor]

And if someday they can cure autism what will the anti-vaxxers do?

We already see them in the GMO crop trashers, they meen well but are utterly uninformed on the subject.

There's also glow in the dark cats

Read a book called "The Wind up Girl" its a near future novel but were we reached peak energy production and we also had a thermal max type event there is three kinds of cats.

1) The very rare normal kind of Cat we have today, but are mostly kept in zoo's and private collections.
2) Glowing cats that have bio lummonessance and are considerd lucky by some and meh by most.
3) Ghost cat's that are genuinely considered evil as they are essentially cameleons, they where created as a party gift by some CEO of a bio tech firm as party gifts for his daughters 8th birthday party because she was obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and liked the Cheshire cat. They were supposed to be sterile and they where... for a while, But just aged differently in comparison to normal feline phenotypes that bread like mad and are now the domminat group of cats in the world.

I wonder what would happen if you used this to cure a severely autistic person, someone who does nothing but shit their pants and go into fits of tard rage all day? Would they just suddenly "wake up" from it like it was a nightmare?

Sadly not it would make them a bit normal and have some effect but the vast majority of the damage is already done by this point, to cure severally autistic adults in the way your talking about would require us to have the ability to physically rewire the brain and we are VERY far from that even when starting out with normal brains we cant repair damage after a certain point if anything its one of the few places of bio tech that we are lagging behind in technically.

The problem is this also brings up a very intresting ethical question, If you where able to Cure an adult autistic person in this way is the person that emerges from this the same person afterwards? They might have been unable to function in normal life but they did have some form of a personallity and some degree of self-awareness. Is this the same person or is it someone new? This is the sort of thing that takes a long time for the medical community to come to terms with and it really is a problem and there are some cases of Brain leasions and Traumatic Injuries totally change a person and it is something that they still struggle with, even 100 plus years after the fact.

 

[spiritofamermaid]

The problem is this also brings up a very intresting ethical question, If you where able to Cure an adult autistic person in this way is the person that emerges from this the same person afterwards? They might have been unable to function in normal life but they did have some form of a personallity and some degree of self-awareness. Is this the same person or is it someone new? This is the sort of thing that takes a long time for the medical community to come to terms with and it really is a problem and there are some cases of Brain leasions and Traumatic Injuries totally change a person and it is something that they still struggle with, even 100 plus years after the fact.

Even many users who take medicine for things like depression, schizo, etc. wonder/worry about that. Many say that the medicine lets them be who they are without the illness, while others aren't sure, or even say that it's changed them (usually the latter results in those who have had it for such a long time that it's somewhat part of their identity for them). It's a question that's asked on both sides of the aisle, from both medical practitioners to the users.

 

[AnOminous]

I'm genuinely scared if they make glow in the dark women a thing, considering that's 3 creatures that have been modified.

This is how they make CIA niggers.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

I guess we’re living in the golden age of lolcows.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

So, will this machine stop geezers from banging their lunchboxes at each other?

Geezers are a lost cause regardless of mental deficencies, let's just focus on the here and now.

 

[Ravenor]

Even many users who take medicine for things like depression, schizo, etc. wonder/worry about that. Many say that the medicine lets them be who they are without the illness, while others aren't sure, or even say that it's changed them (usually the latter results in those who have had it for such a long time that it's somewhat part of their identity for them). It's a question that's asked on both sides of the aisle, from both medical practitioners to the users.

Oh I am well aware of that, but I was referring to the real hard core Bio Ethics groups, the kind that guide and form medical policy and in some cases medical technology.

Those are genuine concerns of users of medicines of that nature but they are a few steps removed from the sort of level this kind of treatment concerns (but are still very valid questions) in the cases I am talking about these are radical personality shifts not a more general improvement, There is one case where a Railway Labourer had a rail spike hit him in the head and changed his whole personality seemed to go from a normally caring courtious person to a foul-mouthed, angry man who would get into fights at the drop of a hat and engage in minor stupid acts of cruelty for no reason other than he though of doing it, There is another where a guy slowly changed over a few years culminating in a violent rape caused by a brain tumour they removed it and it turned him back to his old self almost instantly and he was release from prison after a few years he noticed some old habbits from his pre-diagnosis days comming back and the tumour had returned.

I mean in this case there is an identifiable personallity and is it right to errase it and replace it, that is the question they are trying to ask and this is the sort of question that will keep them tied up on knots for generations.

 

[vertexwindi]

You know, while I'm all for this, I can't help but wonder how a cure for autism might help well-adjusted aspies.

I think I'm reasonably well-adjusted. I mean, sure, I ended up as a mod on KF, but I have a decent job, loyal friends, got my own place, lost my virginity to a tranny hooker, all that good stuff. How much of who I am, and what I've accomplished, is because of the tism? How much would I change if I took such a cure? Would I really become a better person? It's kind of scary to think about.

 

[ZehnBoat]

and kiwi farms closes in 50 years