Considered to be one of the biggest killers of human history, malaria kills more than one million people each year while the disease is lethal to children under five years of age. For decades, scientists and government officials have investigated the prevention and eradication methods of this deadly disease with little accomplishments. Malaria is caused by a group of microorganisms called plasmodia: a single-celled organism that completely relies on mosquitoes for propagation. Current methods used to combat the disease include insecticide nets, insecticide sprays, larval source management, and recombinant vaccines. However, these solutions have deemed to be unsustainable as the pathogen and the carrier continued to grow resistance while the climate of these countries remained suitable for mosquito propagation. Malaria not only drastically increases the infant mortality rate, but it also is a huge setback for developing countries that are to invest money and effort on controlling the bacteria instead of focusing on economic developments. Furthermore, global warming has caused a net increase in disease-carrying mosquito populations. Parallel to the major consequences, governments started to seek sustainable measures to eradicate the disease through a process called gene drives.

Gene drives are a ‘DNA revision mechanism of homologous chromosomes that guarantee an inheritance to offspring’. The gene-editing method relies on a technology called Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPER). The mechanism works by inserting the desired protein extracted from bacteria into the heterozygous or the germline that will be inherited by offspring. The protein recognizes a specific gene and edits it so that it becomes a ‘mutation’ that scientists have desired. Referred to as ‘selfish genetic elements’ these self-replicating pieces of DNA eventually changes the genetic makeup of the population through the progression of generations.

From producing sterile mosquitoes to a male-biased population, diverse gene drive methods have been proved to be effective in lab experiments. Scientists emphasize the potential of gene drives from completely eradicating the disease itself, saving the 6.6 billion dollars annually used for malaria prevention and branching the technology to combat invasive species and undo the harm done on the planet. Yet, the mosquito gene drives remain in the laboratory because of one particular reason; fear and unfamiliarity.

Until the discovery of CRISPR humans were not able to interfere with the blueprint of life, Mendel’s Law of Inheritance was the norm for thousands of years. The introduction of CRISPR brought potential while it also introduced the fear of the unknown. The novel technology is facing great controversy in terms of three factors: moral, social, and environmental.
First is the clash of belief and values. People have different values and beliefs and therefore there are no global regulations that control the boundaries of gene editing and drives. However many people are concerned about continuing to develop the technology without clear regulatory guidelines. Skeptics are raising concerns as to whether or not the technology could future be implemented on selfish individual benefits or intervention in the military after people have noticed major gene drive technologies were funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a sector of the United States military. People feared that the technology could be modified to spread deadly pathogens for military purposes and create weapons above and beyond imaginable destruction.

The second is in terms of social awareness. The CRISPR gene drive technology is still new to the scientists' community while it is yet to have thorough social awareness on the common population. Unfortunately, the highly complex and subject-specific nature of gene drives makes it difficult to educate rural populations of places that struggle from the abundance of malaria. ‘Responsive science’ is becoming the new norm as gene drives prepare to be officially tried for field testing. It is when scientists interact with the community in which the gene drive is going to work and educate the population while gathering consent from the people. Critics worry that the community members who might not be informed or understand the full extent of the problem could become subjects of exploitation from ambitious scientists.

Last is the uncertainty of environmental sustainability. The gene drive goes against the process of natural selection. For millions of years, life on earth has evolved to adapt and adjust to the environment and ecological order. Since nature is an intricately connected system of life, changing just one component could become the start of a massive domino effect. Studies have found that the introduction of a new gene into an organism will not horizontally transfer onto other species and that elimination of the mosquito population would not have a critical impact on the food chain. Still, many anti gene drive organizations such as ‘Friends of the Earth’ protest against the uncertainty that surrounds gene drives.

40 percent of the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria. As 93 percent of the deaths and contractions of the disease originate at the continent of Africa, the most vulnerable children under the age of five suffer high death rates resulting in the death of one child every 30 seconds. Malaria is a problem that cannot be ignored, however, the possible implications of the gene drive technology should not be considered as gene drives continue to develop and prepare future advancements.

배진아 강남포스트  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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