Social and Historical Impacts of Scientific Discoveries

It is inevitable that as truth surfaces from science’s efforts, it will change our approach to a multitude of problems. Not just those directly related to science. These problems can range from politics to sociology. These past weeks while learning about the microbiome, brain, and genome editing, the impact that science has on the balance of human social and economic constructs is obvious.

Throughout my reading there were many examples of how recent scientific discoveries have shaped societal views as well as the economic market of the world. However, science’s reach is not just confined to economic and social constructs. It extends to fields such as politics, ethics, and of course, history. From a reductionist’s viewpoint, the shape of history since the Renaissance is framed by the scientific discoveries that molded the thought of world leaders since. The scientific discoveries regarding the microbiome and neurological development, brain disease, and genome editing technology have not only enhanced the pursuit of science. These discoveries have already and will go on to shape the humanities, economics, and art more than any scientist could have initially predicted. 

The study of the microbiome has resulted in information that may effect what is socially acceptable in the realm of child rearing. For example it has been shown that a mouse’s microbiome has a significant impact on post-natal neurological development. One of the most impactful findings from this study is the correlation between the early stage of post-natal development and susceptibility to the effects of a microbiome. This is important because it has implications for how we may raise our children. It may be inferred that a baby who is brought home to a sterile environment may be at a disadvantage in neurological development. Obviously, more research needs to be done in order to gain more evidence for this notion, but the evidence shown is compelling. How could this knowledge impact society’s views of  “correct” child rearing? In the past mothers have been taught that utmost cleanliness must be observed when a newborn arrives home.  But as more information and research into this topic develops, it could have a significant impact on the social construct of proper mothering.

While knowledge of the microbiome may effect what happens in the home, studies and findings regarding the brain have had a large impact on what happens on the football field. With the discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and it’s link to head trauma sustained in contact sports, the NFL has added over 47 new rules to protect players. For example, players are now penalized for any head to head hits. CTE is a degenerative brain disease that can develop due to repeated trauma to the head. The threat that it poses to players has prompted sports leagues at all levels to implement rules to prevent the development of disease. However, the effects of the discovery of CTE were not limited to just policy changes. The NFL initially battled the findings bitterly, knowing what impact it could have on their economic gains and potential loss of investors and viewers. However, luckily the story of the discovery is one of the triumph of scientific truth over powerful economic players, with the NFL ultimately taking a hit economically as public opinion mounted behind the findings.

The discovery of CTE profoundly influenced both the policy making and economics of pro and college football. But football is an isolated sector of society and economy. What would be the impacts of a technology that could impact generations upon generations of humans and healthcare economics? With the discovery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system the potential for germ-line genome editing (GGE) is now a serious possibility in our future. GGE would be used to change the actual germline of a developing fetus and thus, the changes induced by CRISPR would propagate for generations, not simply ending with the individual who underwent GGE. This raises a whole new field of genetic ethics and has enormous implications for the history of mankind. Is GGE ethical if the generations to follow have no choice in the decision? Could it potentially homogenize the human genome and make us vulnerable to future diseases? These are questions that must be taken into consideration, for they may determine the fate of humans on earth.

Even more pressing on my mind with the discovery of CRISPR, is the potential impact it could have on our history. The eugenics movement of the early 1900’s had a significant impact on Hitler’s ideology and justification for genetic “cleansing”.  Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a Supreme Court justice stated in 1927, “three generations of imbeciles is enough.” He was referring to the idea that it was legally acceptable to sterilize the mentally deficient or criminally insane, for the overall benefit of the human gene pool. This idea was a manifestation of the overall movement of eugenics. I must admit, the possibility of CRISPR technology being used as a vehicle for moving the eugenics movement forward does make me shiver. Jennifer Doudna herself, the scientist responsible for discovering the CRISPR/Cas9 system, stated in an interview that she feared that her discovery could give more momentum and power to radical ideas stemming from eugenics. CRISPR could significantly empower this idea with how quickly and completely it can edit the human genome. Doudna said her greatest fear was that she had just given “Hitler the tool he had always dreamt of.” The potential impacts of this scientific discovery on world history are numerous and frankly unknown. Only time will tell how it will affect the balance currently present.

These examples of the microbiome, CTE, and the CRISPER/Cas9 system show that the societal ramifications of scientific discoveries are much broader and unpredictable than what could be initially ideated. Hopefully, we can be wise as a society in how we handle the truth that science is constantly bringing to the table.

           

Connecting Biology and the Social Sciences

More and more graduate health care programs are requiring applicants to take social science classes as a prerequisite along with the typical basic science coursework. Having studied the natural sciences as long as I have, venturing into other fields felt foreign. This semester I am taking a sociology class in preparation for Physician Assistant school. The first day of class, the professor made the claim that the social sciences were just as much “science” as biology and chemistry. I was a little alarmed when he followed up that statement by saying that sociologists ignore the biology of human behavior and focus only on the social aspect. This was alarming because I believe that an entire field of research should not be discredited or ignored simply because it doesn’t match your perspective. Instead, both should be considered together to form a broader picture. Learning about certain topics in human health and the biology of disease has shown me that there are connections between the natural and social sciences that build upon each other.  A few of these topics include neurobiology, the interactions between microbes and humans, and gene therapy. Each of these affects society in different ways and it’s important to consider them in this context.

The brain is an incredible machine. A couple of semesters ago, I had the chance to dissect portions of the nervous system in an anatomy lab. We removed the brain from the cranial cavity and held it in our hands, resulting in a surreal moment where it hit me that I was holding the very thing that made this person who they were. Every thought and emotion came from this organ in my hands. Many of the things that sociologists focus on such as culture, morals/beliefs, and language were centered here. Societies are made up of individuals and individuals behave based on the functioning of this organ.  The brain is delicate and depends on balance for proper functioning. Any dysfunction can result in changes in behavior and cognition. For a very long time, mental disorders were not understood biochemically. Explanations such as evil spirits and omens seemed to dominate how the public viewed diseases of the brain. This resulted in stigmatization of many groups of people which is still present to this day and has an effect on how individuals and groups of people interact with each other. Removing the stigma around mental illness continues to be a prominent movement. These changes in behavior affect society as a whole but it also has a profound effect on the individual.  Many mental disorders are explained through theories other than biology including the behavioral (rewards/punishments), psychodynamic, and cognitive perspectives, but there is almost always a biological component. Many times it is due to an imbalance in hormones, neurotransmitters, or poor regulation of gene expression. Small imbalances lead to drastic changes in behavior and cognition and therefore affects how an individual interacts with others and their environment. Many medications used to treat these disorders work to reinstate some sort of biochemical balance. This brings balance to the body, but research has shown that a balance needs to be reinstated in the mind as well. Optimal therapy for many psychological conditions is achieved through both medical and talk therapy. Treatment is truly in line with Ayurvedic thinking in that a balance needs to be in place between the body, mind, and spirit to be truly well.

Imbalances in the body and mind do not always originate in the brain itself. Multiple factors in the body affect balance in the brain including the gut microbiome. Hearing about how the microbiome can affect the brain seemed like a large jump to me, but studies have shown that the two are connected in important ways. Imbalances in the composition in the microbiome can affect the biochemical functioning of the brain. Certain bacteria can affect the production of neurotransmitters because they can actually produce them themselves. For example, Bacillus and Serratia bacteria have the ability to produce dopamine. In a more expanded view, imbalances in the microbiome result in an increased likelihood of developing other serious conditions such as cancer and diabetes which definitely can have an effect on mental health. The microbiome cannot be ignored for its role in maintaining balance in the body and mind of humans. From a sociological perspective, the microbiome can have a large impact on societies. A couple of reasons come to mind. First, a study was performed to see if the microbiome had an effect on sociability. Germ free mice and mice with a microbiome intact were monitored to determine if there was a difference in their sociability levels. Germ free mice had a significant decrease in sociability compared to the mice with a microbiome. Translating this to humans, our microbiome may determine in part how we interact with others and with society as a whole. The exact mechanism for this connection isn’t well known, but recognizing that our bacterial hitchhikers may be changing the way we interact with each other is an interesting thought that I wish would be investigated further. The second reason involves the differences in the microbiome in different cultures. Most of the gut microbiome is established through the long-term diet. Cultures in different parts of the world potentially have much different microbiome than we have here in the United States.  With microbiome affecting behavior and cognition, it is an interesting thing to consider how much the microbiome may contribute to cultural differences. Diet is not only important to maintaining the microbiome of individuals through the lifespan, but it also plays a role in development. We read the paper as a class that showed that the microbiome of the mother can affect the colonization of the microbiome in the child. This early colonization then can affect the development of the child and therefore their whole lives. With differences in the microbiome in different cultures, it would be interesting to see if there are any differences in development. It’s becoming more clear that genetics is not the sole determinant for the development of the body and mind of a person and I’m glad these other causes are beginning to be investigated.

Speaking of genetics, another great intersection between biology and social science is gene therapy. Gene therapy is a very controversial topic right now. With technology such as CRISPR available, the possibility of changing the genome of an individual is no longer science fiction. Guiding the use of this technology involves lots of debate and social institutions such as government and religion often have an important voice in the discussion. Ethically speaking, the consensus seems to be that somatic cell therapy is the acceptable use of this technology and affecting the germ line is still considered mostly out-of-bounds. But many people are beginning to support the use this technology to treat genetic diseases through the alteration of embryos and germ cells. In my opinion, this is really the only valid argument for using gene therapy in this way. Broadening the use of this technology beyond medicine can open the door to so many other issues, many of which are social in nature. CRISPR can be used to eliminate undesirable traits and allow people to dictate what their offspring will be like. If a large number of individuals result from genetic engineering, they may have a large impact on the balance of society. A valid point is that we really don’t know how gene alteration would affect offspring or further generations. We also have no idea how a generation of “perfect” people would affect social structure and population balance. Also, I imagine that gene alteration is not a cheap process, meaning that only the wealthy would have access to this technology. This means that less wealthy people would not have the health benefits of gene alteration which could create a large divide between classes of people. These classes would not only be still divided by wealth, but now also by health and disease rates. This could completely throw off the balance of society and have dramatic effects that no one can really predict. It is a good thought to think that genetic diseases can be eradicated from the human population, but the potential long-term effects not associated with medicine seem a little risky to me. Society has reached its current balance because of the social and biological evolution of humans. Taking over that evolutionary process may disrupt that delicate balance.

Balance in societies depends on balance within individuals, and as we can see, balance within the individual is affected by various biological processes including proper functioning of the brain, interactions within other components of the body such as the microbiome, and the composition of human genes. Looking at social sciences through the eyes of biology has been enlightening and the importance of viewing the connections between both fields cannot be overstated in my opinion. I hope this paper might convince others not to be like my sociology professor and dismiss relevant information because it does not match up with their perspective. Any information collected through scientific study in any field should be given respect and incorporated into a bigger picture and understanding of our world.

Curated Paper 2: The Brain and Gene Therapy

Curated Paper 2: The Brain and Gene Therapy

            One of the more recent lecture topics in class was on degenerative brain disorders. These include things like dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, etc. Such diseases don’t only affect those who physically have the disease, but also the friends, family members, and caregivers associated with the person. Speaking as someone who has worked as a caregiver for the past four years and as a student in this class, I can see how the concept of Ayurveda would tie into the life of someone battling this disease. They have no control over the biological aspect, however, they can take medications that may help with some of the side effects. I have witnessed firsthand how much spirituality can help those with dementia and other conditions. When they are having particularly “bad” days, I would often hear m patients talking to the others about church or scriptures etc. Finally, there is a huge psychological component to coping with these disorders. Even though there is only so much that can be done, ensuring that a dementia patient’s stress levels stay low is imperative to their comfort. This is usually done by keeping a consistent routine, using a calm voice, and actively listening when they are talking to you. Sadly, there are currently no available cures for these neurodegenerative disorders.

            Some of the aforementioned neurodegenerative disorders have a genetic component to them, such as Huntington’s disease. One day, they may be able to figure out a way to prevent this disease using some kind of gene therapy. Gene therapy techniques can also be looked at from an Ayurvedic perspective. For each person, feelings regarding this will differ. So, in this paper, I will share my own Ayurvedic opinions. From a biological perspective, gene therapy is a miracle. The fact that we could potentially manipulate our genetic material to get rid of terrible diseases is amazing to me. Psychologically, this idea doesn’t bother me at all. I believe it may help some people psychologically. Especially when you consider what kind of psychological effects a debilitating disease would have on someone. Gene therapy only conflicts with my spiritual beliefs. It’s kind of funny because I’m not really religious, I’m just not sure that humans could handle having that kind of power. I can see it going wrong ethically a lot of ways. I have unbalanced feelings about gene therapy.

            The concept of Ayurveda can tie into any topic within healthcare or science. These things have a very direct impact on our day to day lives from the moment we are born right up until the moment we die. Making healthcare decisions of any kind requires balance. There are moments that it may make more sense for your wellbeing to pursue a treatment. Other times, it may make more sense to choose a peaceful end, such as when families choose to put a loved one on hospice. All throughout life, we face tough decisions. When we make these decisions, we never consider only one aspect. We consider many: the biological, the psychological, and the spiritual. Such is the practice of Ayurveda.

Making Connections

Curated Paper #2

Brain injuries and disorders, micro-biomes, drug effects and genetic therapy. Those are some dense topics that have their own fields of study but looking at them together, a lot of overlap can be seen. For example, with a brain injury, that is going to affect the body and likely will result in drug use to minimize symptoms, thus understanding the effects of those drugs is important. We have evidence that microbes in the gut can alter brain development; can gene therapy be used to make it so our bodies select for only the beneficial microbes? Can CRISPR eventually be used so that we incorporate “super-human” genes into our genome so that we no longer need to worry about brain injuries or taking drugs? Granted, those last view are hypothetical but it’s easy to see that each of these topics could very well cross over into the realm of each other. With that in mind, I want to explore each topic a little more to see what other connections can be made.

Starting with the brain, I have always been fascinated with brain physiology and brain functions. It also amazes me how there is still so much to learn about the brain. As of now, scientists have been able to map out regions associated with certain functions but there are still brain processes that aren’t well understood. For example, it is believed that the Hippocampus deals with memories but how is that long term memory is essentially infinite? How is it that we can remember every word to a song that we haven’t heard in years? Is there a link between brain structure or genetics and intelligence? Then of course, there are so many disorders/diseases that alter regular brain processes and offer up more questions that call for answers.  

Diving into those disorders and diseases of the brain, I feel like I know less and less about them the more I try to learn. For example, I was completely surprised to find out that M.S prevalence is linked to certain latitudes. Like how could latitude possibly drive the immune system to attack myelin sheaths? Seems ridiculous but as we saw in class, there is a correlation. Of course, correlation isn’t the same as causation but still, it’s a very interesting pattern. Doing a little research on this, it seems there are some exceptions to the pattern but studies indicate that there is a definite relationship between the disease and latitude globally, possibly linked to difference in UV radiation. The expectations to the pattern are believed to be due to cultural-behavioral differences in unaffected areas (Lucas, R. 2014). As such, we now have an observable connection between the brain/brain disorders and geography, which is fascinating to me.

Onto physical brain damage, I think it is fair to say that it is common knowledge that brain injuries are not to be overlooked. What I don’t think is common knowledge is how truly detrimental these injuries can be. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard the term, “Traumatic Brain Injury” (TBI) until this course. Nor was I aware that 5.3 million Americans are disabled due to one of these injuries. Granted, that is less than 2% of the United States population but that is still more than I expected. I think what interests me the most about these types of injuries is that no two are the same. Even if two people experience a TBI under extremely similar circumstances, they could very well have vastly different symptoms as a result. Due to this, it makes sense now why mood disorders and related complications, caused by TBIs, are so hard to treat. Since the brain is the body’s control center, the ramifications of altering the brain’s normal function are numerous and severe. Damage to the frontal lobe can result in a complete personality change, which is a scary fact to me. Even a small imbalance of chemicals in that portion of my brain can lead to me functioning/thinking like a new person. If brain damage is altering mood and physiology then is it safe to say that gene expression is also altered? Could that be something fixed by something as easy as CRISPR modifications? Establishing a connection between TBIs and gene therapy could be a game-changing research project. When it comes down to it, our whole identify can potentially be limited to the level of chemicals and how we use them in our brains. Interestingly enough, we can take drugs that alter those chemicals as well so if you think about it, we can change our identity just by popping a pill too.

Rounding out my thoughts on brain injuries, I want to share a personal story associated with the subject. I played high school football as a sophomore and as many may know, concussions are commonplace in the sport. One night, I had a helmet to helmet collision with another player and as a result I was pulled aside to undergo the concussion protocol. To start, I was given a set of five words to remember as I would have to recite them at the end of the examination. A series of questions and tests followed to measure my mental state. I successfully passed off all the required tests and questions, including remembering those five words: elbow carpet apple saddle bubble (in that order). It’s been nearly 6 years since I had that experience. For whatever reason, those words are permanently stored in my memories as if my brain sees them as crucial information. Could it be possible that I did sustain a minor injury that led to my brain to storing that useless information? As we’ve learned, brain injuries can lead to altered brain function so maybe a knock to the head resulted in a period of hyperactive memory function? It’s impossible to say for sure but who knows? That’s why I think it’s important to learn all we can about TBIs and their impacts on the brain.

Now onto the next topic, let’s get into micro-biomes and their interesting role in the body. I’ve spent a lot of time studying microbiology and yet I was still amazed to hear the impact of microbes on the human body. Gut microbes affecting the development of the brain? Feces of thin mice given to obese mice counteracts obesity? Absence of bacteria leading to anxiety and antisocial behavior? Safe to say, I never knew any of that before this class. It makes me think of mitochondria and the endosymbiotic theory. Here are these separate organisms yet they have this important role inside our bodies. As previously mentioned, micro-biomes come into play with brain development but how can they relate to the other topics? Obviously, taking drugs such as antibiotics will alter the state of the the micro-biomes in the body. Moreover, gene therapy could play a role in gene expression which could be targeted to select for certain microbes. A stretch? Maybe, but we’ve learned about more surprising things in this class.

Finally, I’m going to move on to gene therapy. To me, gene therapy represents an incredible gateway into a world with near endless possibilities. For better or for worse, gene therapy has the potential to dramatically change medicine to health care. Genetics is a fascinating field of study and as of now, I don’t even know where I stand when it comes to what we should be able to change and what we shouldn’t. Should we be able to “play God” and alter the course of human growth and development? Is it possible to take gene therapy too far and cross a line that we should cross?

As someone who has aspirations of working in healthcare, the idea of using gene therapy to get an edge over diseases and disorders is exciting to me. A world without genetic disorders seems like science fiction but could that be reality in the next 20-30 years? Even sooner? Will it be possible to genetically modify everything to make some sort of “perfect human”? That all sounds like a goal to shoot for but there has to be drawbacks right? For whatever reasons, many might see manipulating the human genome as unethical and something that shouldn’t be under our control. On the flip side though, how do you tell a parent that you could of extended their child’s lifespan by 50 years but chose not to because “it isn’t our place” to do that?

Cutting away from the dramatic hypotheticals, I wanted to talk about genetics and health insurance. I had never really thought of a downside to getting my genome sequenced. I figured it would be fun and insightful to see my heritage and where my ancestors came from. It never occured to me that that information could actually be used by someone else. Of course, that information is quite literally my identity and as such, shouldn’t I be protecting it? If my insurance company got ahold of that information, should they be able to use that against me to raise my premiums and hold me back from getting quality care? Looking at it from the other side, we live in a capitalist environment where businesses have the right to choose how they charge their customers so should they be denied information on clients? In my eyes, I believe everyone deserves access to quality healthcare so if health insurance companies limit that through discriminating based on genomes, I am against them having that information.  

Taking it all in, it is so hard to know exactly where I stand when it comes to gene therapy. On one hand, I think it is our duty as humans to further the growth and prosperity of our race. That being said, I think there is a limit to what lines we should be able to cross. Who is to say what genes should be allowed and what shouldn’t? If we can prevent diseases, should we also be able to make it so all offspring are perfectly genetically fit? I most definitely do not know so at this time, I can not pick a side. I’m truly excited to see how this field of study process as I’m sure things are only going to get both more exciting and terrifying.

Bringing it all together now, I hope I was able to swing you on connections between these topics. Going over these topics and thinking about balance, it just goes to show that you really never know what two concepts can overlap and be related. From M.S being linked to latitude and gut bacteria being linked to brain development, there is so much evidence to everything being connected. This class has been eye-opening and I’m interested to see what other connections will be made during the rest of this course.

Works Cited:

Lucas, R. (2014). Faculty of 1000 evaluation for Latitude is significantly associated with the prevalence of multiple sclerosis: A meta-analysis. F1000 - Post-publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature. doi:10.3410/f.724307212.793501551

Curated Paper 2

Gregory Cox

Sept. 22, 2018

Biology of Disease

Curated Paper 2

Brain, Microbes, and Gene Therapy

There are many factors that contribute to the balance of the human body, but one that controls more variables than most is the brain.  The brain is the most fascinating, complex organ found in the human body. One reason that makes the brain so fascinating is how little we known about the brain, relatively speaking.  As we discussed the many psychological and brain disorders in class, the complexity of the brain became very apparent. As a future healthcare provider, the task of diagnosing the numerous mental diseases by their symptoms that are so similar can seem daunting, but as technology progresses diagnosing mental illnesses and diseases should become much easier.

One of the recently discovered brain diseases that is very interesting and is gaining some popularity is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).  CTE is thought to be caused by repeated major head injuries due to physical sports, military blasts, physical abuse, or for other reasons. These traumatic environmental factors do lead to CTE, but scientists are discovering that these head injuries don’t actually have to be very severe to cause CTE.  A major portion of individuals who have CTE haven’t ever received a concussive head injury. Researchers are discovering that CTE is being caused by minor head “injuries” especially in youth under the age of 14. Something as simple as a header in soccer or tripping over an object and hitting your head when you’re young could be the cause of CTE later in life.  When I first read these findings I was immediately terrified because I have obtained a number of minor head injuries growing up. Does this mean that I am doomed and I have no chance at escaping CTE? No, of course not. I can’t go in the past and change my head injuries, but I can live life to its’ fullest and help prevent others from the dangers of CTE.

For me, one of the scariest parts of brain injuries and disease is how an individual’s personality can change so quickly.  I have experienced this first hand in my own family. My grandpa suffered from a stroke and some other complications with his brain, and he has never been the same since.  He changed from being a bright, social, energetic guy to not having any energy at all and he rarely likes to talk to others. Sometimes I wonder if he remembers me at all. For these reasons I think it would be beneficial to research and study the brain as much as possible.  Brain injuries are something we still haven’t been able to figure out how to fix. It is incredible how a slight change in brain chemistry can have such a major effects on someone’s personality.

Another part of the body, known as the second brain, that I never knew has such an instrumental role in maintaining a balance in the body is the digestive system.  Specifically the microbiome contained in the digestive system. It’s interesting how a more diverse microbiome is shown to be beneficial for better development and overall health in an individual’s body.  These microbiomes are usually specific to a person’s environment. This phenomenon makes sense to me when considering the digestive system as an external environment, even though it is located inside our bodies.  We are constantly putting foreign materials in our body that are found in the environment around us, and who knows what effects these materials can have. These are all important things to remember especially when going into a healthcare profession.  

Just as our bodys are equipped with special features and techniques to prevent harmful substances from entering our bodies, the immune system controls and monitors the internal environment of our bodies similarly.  It’s amazing how the body is usually able to distinguish the good bacteria from the bad bacteria, keeping the good and destroying the bad to maintain order and balance in the body. Not only does the brain tell the digestive system what to do, but the digestive systems affects how the brain functions as well.  Scientists have shown in experiments with mice that the contents of the microbiome affect the stress levels of a mouse when presented with traumatic situations. It is likely that we will find similar results in humans as well. In fact, evidence shows that antibiotics can have an affect on an individual’s mood and behavior.  These findings show the importance of obtaining and maintaining a healthy microbiotic environment through diet and other factors.

A different topic that has gained much popularity in the recent years is gene therapy.  One of the hardest aspects of gene therapy are the conflicting morals and ethics associated with it.  Each person has their own set of ideas and plans of what they should and shouldn’t do with human genetic materials.  Gene therapy has the potential to change the world and benefit the lives of others, but if not used correctly, modifying genes could doom our society.  The dangerous part of this technology is that there is so much grey matter on the subject. This is all very new technology and we simply don’t know the long term effects of changing a human genome.  I think the majority of society would support using this technology to better the lives of those with genetic diseases. However, if gene therapy were legal and abundant, would gene modification only be used for curing potential diseases?  I think we should use this technology for the curing of diseases, but not for anything else until we fully understand the long term effects of gene modification.

The three main subjects just discussed are all connected with each other to create a balance for the body.  This perfect balance is what all sincere healthcare providers are striving to achieve with their patients. It is very important to realize and understand all of the various factors that contribute to maintaining the balance in the body.  Something as simple as what you eat could have major effects on an individual’s brain, mood, and internal environment. A simple change in a nucleotide sequence could have catastrophic effects on a person’s life. This balance that promotes life is so delicate but yet so interesting to study, in order to find new ways to fix balance issues or maintain an already healthy balance.  

Curated Paper #2 - Brain, microbes, and gene therapy

Adam Beales

Professor Karpel

BIOL 4500- Biology of Disease

Curated Paper #2 – Brain, microbes, and Gene Therapy

            The brain that humans have is an amazing and powerful tool. Our brains have allowed us to accomplish truly remarkable feats. The things we have created a world that is efficient and allows humans to grow and create more things that will help us. However, if something happens to our brain it can be catastrophic. Any number of things can happen like dementia, epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, depression, and anxiety. Looking at mental disorders, I used to think of people who are mentally unstable and are harmful to others or self-destructive. The example that instantly drew to my mind is depression. Growing up I thought a lot of mental disorders were the person’s fault and all they have to do is change the way they view their life and their life will get better. I later learned that with a lot of disorders it has less to to do with the way the view the world, but more about something biological inside of their bodies that cause the mental disorder. The discussions/lectures in this class have definitely proven that the diseases aren’t simply a state of mind. This is actually a big deal to know because it changes drastically how I viewed people with disorders. I used to think people were looking for attention, lazy, and causing their own pain on purpose. This made me look down on people with those disorders. Now that I know differently, I don’t look down on them.

            After reading the symptoms of many different mental disorders, many have very similar symptoms like becoming angry quickly, defects in memory, and judgement.  A lot of these diseases are still being studied because we don’t know why they exist. We’ve made a lot of progress on these diseases, but are still not close to a cure. We have found that a lot of these diseases are hereditary based on family history. I fear memory disorders because my grandmother has a developing memory disease. My grandma has met my finance seven times and each time I have to introduce her. It makes me extremely sad because my soon to be wife is such a big part of my life and my grandma won’t ever know who she is. Her having this makes it more likely that I am likely to get a memory disorder when I get older.

There is a discussion if there is a difference between the terms mind and brain. Often in health care there are those that use the terms synonymously. Because the brain creates thoughts (the mind), they make no distinction between the two words. However, there are important differences between these words. The mind is developed through environmental, and psychosocial factors and changed by psychotherapy. The brain composed of genetic and biological factors and changed through medication. The brain and the mind have a very complicated relationship because each one affects the other. Serious damage physically or mentally can drastically change how a person acts and thinks.

There are things that can affect the brain’s development are microbes. We learned in class that we are now learning that there is an effect of microbes, especially gut microbes, on the brain. Momma always told us to eat our veggies because it would make our bodies strong. Just as certain foods help our bodies, having certain microbes can do the same.

Microbes have many roles in our bodies. One important role is in our digestion. They help us break down foods so that we can maximize the nutrients and energy we get out of them. Although microbes are important. Sometimes they can be detrimental to our health if they get out of balance. If a species of bacteria outcompetes another bacterium and leads to a disruption of balance, we can get very sick and get diseases. For example, if the body has a large composition of the bacteria Helicobacter hepaticus it has been shown to be a cause in prostate cancer.

Examining microbes has been extremely helpful in our studies of genes. With faster life cycles than most mammals it allows us to see the effects of certain genes in a much shorter amount of time than working with larger organisms. An extremely revolutionary thing we have learned is CRISPR gene therapy. This work has given us the potential to eliminate a lot of genetic diseases. This has the potential to change humans as we know them. CRISPR doesn’t just eliminate a genetic disease in that one individual, it eliminates it from their offspring as well. It has the potential to literally eradicate a disease.

There are some things that I believe we should do before allowing CRISPR to be conducted on large scale with gamete cells. There needs to be many experiments done to see the unforeseen consequences. We don’t want to eliminate one disease from our populations but ensure another more devastating one. As well as we need to be careful to not allow it to go further than genetic diseases for now. After genetic disease are properly controlled, then we could look into the possibility of designer babies. There would have to be lots of discussion and a majority consensus on rules and regulations before it would be available to the general population. I think designer babies would require more rules and regulations than fixing genetic diseases because with a genetic disease there is a clear goal in mind and once it’s reached that’s the end of it. With designer babies there are potentially limitless possibilities and many things would need to be researched because things like affecting the pigment in your skin can result in higher skin cancer rates. Possibly combining two traits results in a different disease. I think it’s a possibility but it should be slower to get to that point than eliminating genetic diseases.

The Human Brain, Microbiome, and Gene therapy. A Cascade of How One Effects Another.

The studies of the human brain, human microbiome, and gene therapy seem like wildly different topics. By most common convention, they are. However, in the overall view of how a human body works and is maintained, these topics intertwine.

When one begins to study brain disorders, several heavy-hitting diseases come to mind: Huntington’s disease, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, and Tay-Sachs to name a few. These diseases, are all related to genetics in some way, as a person’s genetic makeup often lays the groundwork for predispositions to these diseases, or directly causes the disease. In the case of Huntington’s disease, it is an inherited brain disorder in which brain cells are slowly destroyed. The disease manifests in the patient first with general mood and mental issues, moving on to effect coordination of movement, and eventually causing the patient to be unable to talk. There is no cure for this disease, but some treatments have been formed to help improve the quality of life for the patient. Dementia and Alzheimer’s are often confused for one another due to the fact that they both effect the same subset of humans (geriatric) and have similar looking symptoms. Dementia, however, is a syndrome which combines the symptoms of impacted memory, reduced daily performance, and decreased communication abilities. Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia, which is a neurodegenerative disease which scientists are still studying the cause of. Many speculate that dementia is due to genetic factors, and those with a history of depression, traumatic brain injuries, and or hypertension are at higher risk of obtaining the disease. Tay-Sachs disease is an inherited metabolic disorder where lipids build up in the brain causing cell death. This most often is seen in infants between three to six months of age, and showing loss of skills in body coordination. This later often causes seizures, hearing loss, and death.

Terminal or chronic disorders like those listed above have devastating effects on the people afflicted by them, and all of these are uncurable. Or so we think. Recently, a new scientific technology has been created, coined “CRISPR”, short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. CRISPR is used to effectively edit DNA sequences in a more simple way than ever before, and with it, we may be able to cure such diseases as those previously stated. This topic is highly controversial, because the thought of editing a person’s genome is both dangerous, and possibly unethical. Most opposition for the use of this technology in humans has to do with changing germ-line cells that would propagate into the next generation of people, and thus, our actions now could have very real consequences later. Other arguments against CRISPR’s use has to do with the idea of personality and how genetics helps to shape it. If scientists were to change the building blocks of a person’s body, would they also change who they become mentally?

This brings us to the topic of the brain vs. the mind. A paper by Gabbard G.O. digs down to the point of how the public and how professionals currently think about the mind and the brain. The author argues that they are entwined, which everyone knows intrinsically, but speak differently upon, trying to separate the concept of mind from the anatomical organ found within the skull of a human. Ultimately the author argues that mental disorders are due in-part to anatomical issues within the brain itself, which means that again, genetics has play here. However, answering whether gene therapy in germ-cells is ethical cannot be answered based purely on this basis, as although genetics has a role to play as intrinsic factors, environmental factors also must be taken into account for who a person will some-day become. Environmental factors range from exposure to certain chemicals (via food, inhalation, skin absorption, etc.), to levels of stress incurred during development. The “nature vs. nurture” topic has been brought up time-and-time again to try to explain what ultimately determines a person’s personality and further actions. Do intrinsic motivations shape a person, or does the values a parent passes on to their child shape them? This is also, unfortunately, not easily answered as it turns out that both nature and nurture have to do with how a person will develop, and even further, microbial populations within a person can add to the environmental factors that shape people into who they are.

Microbial populations residing within the human microbiome help shape who a person becomes mentally sounds like a bit of a stretch. That is, until one looks into the forming body of research that shows how much the gut microbiome of a person actually effects the brain. As earlier established, the brain and mind as we know them are intertwined, where the anatomy of the brain shapes the mind, and the mind can eventually change the anatomy of the brain. Interestingly, microbial populations throughout the human body, especially in the lower gastrointestinal tract, can cause changes within the brain’s anatomy. Within the last decade, many scientific studies have linked the human gut microbiome to human behavior via emotions, learning ability, and feelings of satiety. Healthy microbiomes can promote proper brain function, while unhealthy microbiomes can exacerbate genetic predispositions already present in a person. Thus, gut microbiota help effect who a person becomes mentally.

To bring this full circle, the brain, human microbiome, and gene therapy are related in that the human microbiome effects the brain, the brain effects the mind, and the mind shapes who we are as people. Gene therapy promises to change this dynamic with repercussions that we as scientists cannot yet understand, but regardless, it is an exciting time to be alive to see these new developments in the world.

Emily Olson

BIOL 4500-01

11/16/18

Curated Paper 2

Our discussion of the brain and mental disorders went right along with my Abnormal Psychology class. We discussed neurological disorders like Huntington’s disease and dementias. I personally like to talk about dementia. I work in the dementia unit of an assisted living facility. Dementia causes a deterioration of intellectual abilities. Memory, judgement, and concentration are all affected. It can cause personality changes and emotional instability too. I have seen this first-hand at work. We have a specific resident that needs assistance ambulating, dressing, and getting into/out of bed. The problem is that she hates that she needs help. She wants to do it alone. When we try to help her, she gets very upset and will yell at us. Within a few minutes, she will calm down and apologize for being so difficult, only to yell again a minute later. She has very little control over her emotions due to her disease. That can be a prominent factor that leads families to put relatives in assisted living homes. It becomes too difficult for them to handle. To be honest, some days it is too difficult for even the staff to handle.

The next topic was Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs). A TBI is usually caused by an external force such as a car crash or lack of oxygen. It can lead to a diminished state of consciousness and/or impaired cognitive abilities. Those with TBIs are a high risk group for developing other psychiatric disorders. If their brain is not functioning properly, they may become paranoid, their personality may change, or they may become depressed, among others. TBIs are complex. No two injuries are the same, so no two injuries heal the same. The general structure of the brain is the same throughout people, but specific structure varies from person to person. It is very difficult to predict how any person will recover from this type of injury.

Symptoms of a traumatic brain injury vary as well. When I was doing clinicals for my CNA certification, I met a patient who had tried to commit suicide via drug overdose. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the person ended up as a vegetable. His brain was damaged so severely that he no longer had any control over his body, and even had to breath through a ventilator. Other symptoms include personality change, affective (emotional/mood) instability, irritability and anxiety, laughs inappropriately and/or excessively, pathological crying, impaired social judgment, not sensitive to other’s feelings/reactions, inability to plan ahead, sexually inappropriate, apathy, and paranoid ideation. As we were listing these, I drew the connection between a TBI and dementia. All these symptoms are listen on our ADL (activities of daily living) charting list to watch for and assist our resident with. We have residents that cry randomly. We have some that think their families are trying to lock them in a room and gas them out. We have a few that have inappropriate sexual tendencies. Dementia is very similar to a TBI. With a TBI, the brain is damaged. With dementia, the brain is disintegrating and parts of the brain get damaged. People exhibit the same symptoms; the main difference is the cause.

Traumatic brain injuries and dementia both exemplify how the brain affects the body and mind, as well as your spirit. When the brain isn’t functioning properly, the body doesn’t know what to do. Personalities may shift. Who you are as a person can be altered. Everything needs to have a balance to function properly. When one thing is off, it is all off. Scientists are working in various fields to uncover treatments and therapies that can restore that balance.

Gene therapy is a very controversial topic. It can’t be used to cure a TBI, but may be used to treat genetic neuro diseases. The question is: is it ethical? Is it moral? These two are often confused. Scientists have argued over whether or not gene therapy should be implemented. There are very real risks involved. Even with precision, new genes may be inserted into the wrong place in DNA. If it is inserted correctly, the person’s immune system may attack it. DNA sequences are still being heavily studied, as there is so much yet unknown. There could be so many adverse complications that it seems to be not worth the risk, at least until scientists have a more complete understanding of all genes and expression patterns of each sequence. This knowledge could still take decades to uncover. Those with a religious background may have moral reservations. They say God created people just how they were meant to be. It changes a person’s natural course of life. They may say that when a person goes is up to God. If they have an ‘undesirable’ gene, it is meant to be a trial that they learn and grow from. Taking that away only shorts themselves.

Oh the flip side of all this, gene therapy can be very beneficial. Parents can know if their child tests positive for Down syndrome. With this knowledge, they can prepare their home and take classes to learn how to raise this child. People with cystic fibrosis and Parkinson’s disease (another neurodegenerative disease) may be treated and their lives made significantly easier and longer. Many babies with diseases that cause premature death and decreased quality of life can be treated and granted life. By altering the genetic makeup via gene therapy, many detrimental cases can be avoided and they can find a new genetic balance.

With a new genetic balance comes a new microbiome. Your body functions best with a cultured set of microorganisms inside it. This biome can be altered by diet and lifestyle. I recently learned from a nurse practitioner I was scribing for that wild blueberries are a natural way to prevent TAU proteins from building up and potentially causing CTE. This diet and corresponding microbiome set the body up for success. Neurodegenerative diseases like dementia are prevented. Altering your microbiome alters your physical and mental states too.

This leads to the topic of ayurveda and balance. A person’s body is obviously altered with gene therapy. Interaction of genes affect how body processes flow and how the person reacts to their environment. This influence from the body continues to the mind. Hormones that were evolved to work a certain way now follow a different pathway leading to an alternate chain of neural responses. The rest of the genes that remained unaltered may respond differently and dysfunctions could arise. Is this risk worth it for a shot at an improved life? The spirit is affected with dementia and brain injuries because the person’s whole sense of self is turned upside down. Gene therapy can prevent those effects, but also create an entirely different spirit and sense of self. Your spirit in turn affects how you live and therefore what microbiome you cultivate. From all sides, it the person as a whole is affected. All that remains is which self is balanced.

Brain, Microorganisms, and Gene Therapy

Ashley Garcia

BIOL-4500

November 16, 2018

           The central topic of our class is Ayurveda and balance. In high school biology we are taught that our body tries to maintain homeostasis through different processes, so from a young age, we’ve known that to function properly our body needs to be in balance. And in this class, we see how everything is connected and contributes to our health. Initial it was hard to see who our brain, microbiomes, and gene therapy are connected. However, after discussing these topics in class the connection between them is more obvious.

Brain  

            The brain is kind of a mysterious organ. We have a lot of information on the brain, like certain lobes of the brain are responsible for certain skills and processes, that nerve cell in the brain communicate via electrical pulses that are assisted by chemical signals, and the right side the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. But there is so much more that we still don’t understand. Like how information is encoded and interpreted, why people sleep and dream, and how our personality is decided by our brain. I also find it fun to think about how scientists run experiments on other brains to understand them and it was their brain that came up with the and can interpret the results; it’s like some weird inception. And since the brain is so mysterious it makes understanding how a disease affects the brain more difficult.

            Dementia is neurological disorder and a broad term used to describe a group of symptoms associated with memory loss and loss of other skills. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 60-80 percent of all dementia cases. Last spring, I took cellular and molecular biology and one of our assignments was writing an experimental proposal, and I decided to write my proposal on the pathogenesis of AD. Currently, the pathogenesis of AD is not completely understood. However, there are few hypotheses about what causes AD. The most popular hypotheses are that AD is caused by excess production and the aggregation of β-amyloid, an imbalance in sphingolipid metabolism, or malfunctioning mitochondria. Many know that AD is associated with β-amyloid plaque buildup, however, there is another protein that is closely associated; hyperphosphorylated tau protein. Tau proteins are abundant in the nervous system as they support microtubule integrity. However, when they are hyperphosphorylated and the no longer function properly and can’t provide stability to microtubules properly. There is much to learn about Alzheimer’s disease.

            The brain is just a large, soft mass of tissue. So, most people think that people will die for a brain injury. amazingly it can handle quite a bit; for example, Phineas P. Gage. I first heard about Phineas P. Gage in a high school class, and I thought it was so crazy that someone could survive an accident like that. I’ve heard about this incident many times over during my time at college, and I still find it fascinating. I mean it’s crazy that the rail when completely through his brain, his personality basically did a 180, and yet he was able to make a complete physical recovery. He sure was lucky that he was able to survive that accident at all.

            It’s crazy that the brain can be so resilient. There have been many cases where, patients experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may end up forgetting to walk, but they are able to relearn. And in other cases, patients experience a TBI and are never the same again. Which brings up an interesting point; no two brain injuries are alike. Two people may experience that exact same TBI, but their symptoms and recovery may be completely different. This is probably why many brain surgeries occur while the patient is awake. I know the main reason is to ensure the surgeon affect the brain in a negative way, but maybe it’s also because there a difference in the way each person’s brain is “wired”. I mean, many surgeries are standardized, and the process is nearly the same from operation to operation. But since the brain is mysterious and unpredictable the process may vary a bit between surgeries, so they must keep the patients awake.

Microorganisms

            When most people think about microorganism a negative image pops up and they think about the “bad” bacteria that cause disease in other organisms. However, all animal and plants have established symbiotic relationships with different microorganisms. For example, our gut is home to many microorganisms that help digest our food. However, even "good" bacteria can cause us harm if they are in the wrong location or are out of balance.

            During the first few days of life, there is a period of bacterial colonization, where a sterile organism is inhabited by microorganisms that are likely to stay for the rest of there lives. So, it’s natural that these bacteria would play an important role in the development of the immune system, digestion, and absorption, and act at a barrier against pathogens. In an interesting experiment conducted by Nobuyuki Sudo, they hypothesized that the connection between microbial colonization and the immune system during early life might alter the responsiveness to hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal (HPA). HPA is a neuroendocrine system that is heavily influenced by early life. Results of this experiment showed that ACTH and corticosterone elevation in response to stress was significantly higher in germ free mice than mice with normal microbiota. The germ-free mice also showed decreased neurotrophic factors expression level compared to the mice with normal microbiota. The result of this study supports other evidence that shows communication between the brain and the gut, and that events that occur in the gastrointestinal tract have long lasting effects on response to stress. Interestingly, there is also evidence that stress can lead to change in gastrointestinal motility and that changes in gastrointestinal function affects the brain. Understanding the delicate balance between the body and brain can be important to developing new treatments for both gastrointestinal and mental disease. If specific changes in the gastrointestinal tract or brain can be connected to imbalances in the other system, we can treat the disease by correcting the imbalance.

Gene Therapy

            In class, we discussed the ethical and social concerns surrounding gene therapy. I’m currently taking biomedical ethics and one of the interesting things I’ve noticed during our discussions, is the impact that large government has on science and vice versa. Like the HUGO International, the equivalent of the U.N. for the human genome. Their goal is to bring the benefits of genomic sciences to humanity by protein genomic research, exchange of scientific information, and ethical discussions. Although it’s great that there is an international committee that is devoted to ensuring ethical genomic research, the issue is that there are no ensuring countries conducting gene therapy research are done in an ethical manner and the committee only addressed somatic gene therapy. Another interesting example of the relationship between government and science we talked about in class is the legislation created because of genetics, like the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) which prohibits health insurers and employers from discriminating based on genetic information. I feel like it’s kind of weird that we have legislation like GINA to prevent discrimination genetics, but we don’t have the same kind of legislation to protect patients with preexisting conditions. I mean we could easily thing of a person’s genetics a preexisting condition since genetics play a large role in the development of certain diseases and disorders.

            Gene therapy is still being researched, many are concerned about whether changing the human germline is okay. To begin the discussion of gene therapy it’s important to distinguish between ethics and morality. Ethics objectively prescribe a standard of conduct, while morality is a system that establishing rules that relates to right and wrong. While morality may change between people and culture, ethics is more universal. So, to have a proper conversation it’s important to just talk about the ethics of gene therapy. The paper we read this week was a thesis that argued that gene editing is ethical, which I agree with as long as the proper restrictions and legislations are created to ensure the proper use of the procedure. But what I found interesting about the paper is that Austen Yeager assumed that CRISPR and gene modification carried little risk and was safe to use in humans. He had to make this assumption to be able to discuss the ethics of gene therapy, but I think it’s also important to address the fact CRISPR is relatively new technology. There are still many aspects of gene therapy that need to be refined. Also, scientist don’t know the long-term effects of gene modification. For example, scientists is just starting to understand epigenetics and the mechanism involved. There’s a lot of research that still needs to be done before gene therapy become a viable treatment for genetic conditions. So, I think right now its more important to make sure the research going into CRISPR and human genome editing is ethical. Because I don’t believe that “the end justifies the means”.

Ayurveda

            As science and medicine continue to research the unknown and gather new information about our overall standard of life and health will likely increase. And as more research is conducted, we will see knew connections and how seemingly unrelated processes are connected. By better understanding who our body, mind, and spirit are connect to other processes medical professional will learn how to better address disease and mental disorders. For example, our mental health can be greatly affected by our spiritual and physical health; like recovering from a brain injury or Alzheimer’s disease. Our brain is also affected by microorganisms, which also are important to our immune and digestive systems. And gene therapy will hopefully become another tool for treating chronic and debilitating genetic diseases. However, before gene therapy become a viable tool, we have to understand how our environment effects epigenetics and the role our genes play in our personality/mental state. Life is a balance act and so is our health and medicine.