Over time, there are a lot of potential manipulations that one can do to their body. These include now both pre-birth as well as after birth. We’re going to look at three common things.
CRISPR and Gene Editing
“Genes consist of DNA, which determines what an organism is like, its appearance, how it survives, and how it behaves in its environment. All living beings have genes, which can also determine a person’s health throughout their life.” Genes: Function, makeup, Human Genome Project, and research (medicalnewstoday.com)
Gene therapy is a technique that modifies a person’s genes to treat or cure disease. It works by several mechanisms:
- Replacing a disease-causing gene with a healthy copy of the gene.
- Inactivating a disease-causing gene that is not functioning properly.
- Introducing a new or modified gene into the body to help treat a disease.
- Gene therapy products are being studied to treat diseases including cancer, genetic diseases, and infectious diseases
With some modern technologies, it allows genes to be edited, so we can modify how living things are created.
CRISPR is a relatively new method/tool that we can use to manipulate genes. It is important to know that while there are other gene editing tools, but CRISPER has advantages over other methods such as it being easier to manipulate the genes due to how it works with RNA. It is also faster and easier to use than other gene manipulation tools.
This is why for gene therapy, it has become a common tool to use. However, it isn’t perfect. There are a few potential issues: off-target effect – what happens if edits occur in place you don’t mean? Delivery can be a challenge. There are risk to immune responses which might cause issues getting it delivered and accepted.
There is also the issue of what about genes which are not normally active, that we don’t necessarily know what they do. Could one or more genes like that be turned on, and what effect would that have?
Of course, there is also potential ethical dilemmas involving gene editing. These are things we’ll look and talk about.
Frontiers | CRISPR/Cas: Advances, Limitations, and Applications for Precision Cancer Research (frontiersin.org) and Strategies to overcome the main challenges of the use of CRISPR/Cas9 as a replacement for cancer therapy | Molecular Cancer | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)
Implants (Brain and Nerve)
The idea of brain implants to improve ourselves has long been an idea of science fiction. However, a lot of real life technology has started off as wild fiction (think personal computing devices, wireless phones, etc).
All that it costs Johnny to store information, is his childhood. The later he got into downloading information in the Matrix movie. (warning, minor language)
Yet, Elon Musk, and others, are trying to make these types of things a reality. Neuralink, one of Elon Musks companies, is developing a brain-implant technology that aims to enable direct communication between the human brain and machines. The technology involves 1,000 wires measuring one-tenth the width of a human hair connecting between a chip and parts of the brain and nerves. The goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone. They are focusing first on people with paralysis, but the final goal is potentially to be able to implant this in anyone.
Neuralink has recently received approval from an independent review board to begin recruiting patients for its first human trial. The company is seeking people with paralysis to test its experimental device in a six-year study. Participants will have a brain-computer interface (BCI) surgically implanted using a proprietary robot in a region of the brain that controls movement.
- https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/20/tech/musk-neuralink-human-trials/index.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/19/elon-musk-neuralink-human-trials-brain-implant
There are also various projects which allow you to implant a device to help with main management. In some cases, like with ReActiv8: it is approved for the treatment of multifidus muscle dysfunction. The implant uses electrical stimulation to induce contraction in the lower back muscle, correcting a weakness that causes pain. https://www.verywellhealth.com/reactiv8-implant-low-back-pain-5070798
This is but one type of a spinal cord stimulator. An implanted device that sends low levels of electricity directly into the spinal cord to relieve pain. It is used most often after nonsurgical pain treatment options have failed to provide sufficient relief.
With others, it may release some pain medicine. And others “also block “cool nerves” to help with pain, without the use of opioids. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/30/nerve-cooling-implant-could-offer-pain-relief-alternative-to-opioids-say-researchers
Prosthetics (Artificial Limbs)
The earliest prosthetics have been around since the 1500s in China. https://humanparagon.com/prosthetic-arms-and-hands/ Of course, modern prosthetics have a lot more capabilities and uses than those of 500 years ago.
While studies have shown that bionic prosthetics don’t have an advantage over real limbs. https://prosthetic1.com/blog/can-prosthetics-outperform-real-limbs/ That doesn’t always mean that will be the case. As a child, I personally had a teacher with a prosthetic arm, who could crush a glass bottle with her grip. Something any normal adult would be challenged to do. What if at some point, prosthetics were better than natural limbs in other, maybe even most areas? Should we allow people to remove their arm, leg, etc, to get an “upgrade”?
Medical Manipulations was originally found on Access 2 Learn
