{"id":425484,"date":"2025-09-15T05:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T05:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/425484\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T05:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T05:24:13","slug":"scientists-find-way-to-remove-chromosome-in-down-syndrome-raises-ethical-questions-the-tartan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/425484\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists find way to remove chromosome in Down syndrome, raises ethical questions \u2013 The Tartan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Yang<\/p>\n

\"\"Researchers from Mie University in Japan used the gene editing tool CRISPR to remove the extra chromosome 21, the copy responsible for Down syndrome. Courtesy of digitale.de via Unsplash<\/strong><\/p>\n

For genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia or Huntington\u2019s disease, doctors have often focused on how effectively patients\u2019 symptoms can be managed. Recently, scientists have discovered how to address them at their root cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what happens when we try to treat genetic mutations that don\u2019t necessarily qualify as disorders? Even as we\u2019re researching them, scientists still aren\u2019t quite sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Feb. 2025, researchers from Mie University in Japan developed a method<\/a> for removing the third copy of chromosome 21, the structure responsible for causing Down syndrome, through the gene editing tool Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR). CRISPR allows scientists to pinpoint targets in DNA that may contain a mutation and remove them using an enzyme called Cas-9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The use of CRISPR-based gene editing, which biochemist Dr. Jennifer Doudna pioneered in 2012, is \u201cprobably one of the top ten discoveries in human history, from a biomedical field,\u201d according to Dr. Danith Ly, a professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal form of intellectual and physical disability, resulting in large deficits in cognitive and motor development. If CRISPR can be applied in clinical use to treat Down syndrome, it could impact one in 691 people born<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using CRISPR-based therapies to treat conditions such as Down syndrome, however, comes with a host of financial, ethical, and accessibility concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one, they are expensive. Casgevy, the only FDA-approved CRISPR therapy to treat sickle cell anemia, costs $2.2 million per patient<\/a>. Lenmeldy, another gene therapy, is the most expensive drug in the United States, costing $4.25 million per patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reason for these high costs, Dr. Ly explained, is due to the amount of funding required to go through clinical testing and use. Performing clinical trials may \u201ccost anywhere from half a billion to a couple billion dollars\u201d and take anywhere from five to 10 years on top of how long it takes for therapies to get approved for use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The currently approved gene therapies work \u201cex vivo\u201d, meaning they are given to blood cells outside of a person\u2019s body that then circulate throughout their system. These genetic changes last as long as the blood cells are alive, making them impermanent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the proposed therapy for Down syndrome takes place at the embryonic level, which means parents have to go through IVF for the procedure to take place. \u201cAnd you come back to, \u2018Who can afford this?\u2019\u201d says Dr. Stephanie Wong-Noonan, a professor of biology at Carnegie Mellon. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be inaccessible unless there\u2019s some way to support that, either through making it easier to produce the product, or providing some kind of government funding so that it doesn\u2019t cost people so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embryonic changes also affect the genome itself \u2014 meaning that its revisions will affect all future generations. That means a mistake in the editing, \u201ceven a 0.1 percent difference, will not only change you in your lifetime, but your children down the road,\u201d Dr. Ly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the question of the extent to which CRISPR-based treatments should be used. While not many therapies are approved now, Dr. Ly acknowledges that this \u201ctechnology will eventually be perfected, and I think the more options we have, the better off we will be. The scientific community really embraces the idea, but we just don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can correct one thing, you can correct everything. And the question is always where you draw the line,\u201d Dr. Wong-Noonan said. \u201cWhat things will we correct? Or should we correct? There are lots of morally gray areas when it comes to these types of technologies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And maybe there\u2019s not meant to be a clear answer. \u201cCRISPR is never 100 percent, right, and understandably so. In evolution, there\u2019s always a blurry line,\u201d Dr. Ly said. \u201cAnd maybe that\u2019s a part of evolution. It\u2019s designed to generate diversity as we progress through life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Michelle Yang Researchers from Mie University in Japan used the gene editing tool CRISPR to remove the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-425484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115206649497131215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}