CRISPR, MIND, and BACTERIA

Emily Olsen

Curated Paper 2

Capstone: Biology of Disease

CRISPR, MIND, and BACTERIA

Reading the title you may wonder how these three categories relate. I am here to tell you how they are very similar in certain aspects. Brain, microbes, and gene therapy all affect how the human body functions. Understanding these categories are essential for the future of healthcare. The science community has yet to fully comprehend the role these subjects have on both the community and individuals. For example, past treatment for concussion has been incorrect for decades and it wasn’t until recent scientific findings showed that changes needed to be made for the medical care of people, especially athletes suffering from concussions. Microbes, including bacteria, are feared by society due to the false impressions that they only cause sickness. Yet some bacteria such as Lactobacillus are crucial for digestion. The general misconception of microbes cause fearfulness in a population but the unknown may create more uncertainty. The ability to change an unborn infants genome will have a big impact on Ayurveda of that individual but also society.
Many people are scared when they hear the word bacteria, instead of a healthy gut, they will think of sickness and antibiotics. Initially, they don’t understand that we have more bacteria in the gut then red blood cells. Researchers have found that certain strain of bacteria often found in the gut are extremely important for digestion. Recent studies have reported that there may be a relationship between the brain and gut, called the brain-gut axis. Japanese scientists have found that there is even a link between microorganisms and the nervous system. Another important finding in this research was that they found that exposure to microbiota in early development was important for brain development, especially the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal system for stress response. They found that infants in the early stages of development need to exposed to certain microbes will not only affect the gastrointestinal tract but also have a lasting impact on neural processing. These findings are extremely important because new parents want to keep their newborn infants in a germ-free environment which could be affecting their development.
 Brain development is important especially during the stressful time preparing for Physician Assistant program interviews. When an ethical question is asked and you have to create a substantial answer on the spot testing your ability to critically think under pressure. Not giving a well thought out answer may very well lose your seat in the program. Essentially it is important for me to have a basic knowledge of a variety of ethical issues.  I’m very thankful that gene therapy has not been brought up because it is complicated and difficult to fully comprehend. Honestly, until I read the article, “The Ethics of CRISPR” by Austen Roxanne Yeager I didn’t fully understand both the benefits and consequences of altering a human’s genome.
The article talked about above was published in 2016, in which she talked about a conference held in Washington D.C. where international scientists discussed using CRISPR for clinical use. They meet for three days and were unable to come to a conclusion but most have agreed to discourage future steps to use CRISPR on humans. I find this hard to believe. This is my last semester of undergraduate and I will be receiving my biology degree in December. When I think my background in biology and using CRISPR to prevent children from developing a  genetic disease, I see nothing wrong with researching this idea further. If I was specifically predisposed to a specific genetic disease that I knew my unborn child was likely to inherit, I would do everything in my power to prevent this from occurring. I would like to think that most parents in that situation would react similarly.
When I think about gene therapy from a medical or biological standpoint I only see good outcomes. On the other side, when I think about this concept from an ethical or legal standpoint I start to wonder what implementing these laws might do for a population as a whole. Medical marijuana was on the ballot for Utah this week. Research has shown that marijuana is not as addictive as opioids and the possibility of overdosing on marijuana is lower. Utah is in opioid epidemic and hundreds of people die each year of an overdose. You would think that the citizens of Utah would want a change although many will vote against the bill. Why is this? It makes me wonder if many people are scared of change. They are scared of how medical marijuana will change the medical community. This makes me wonder how the community not only in Utah but the nation would feel about a change as drastic as gene therapy. Many people would agree that prevention of genetic disease is a good thing. Much of the population may be scared that government regulation may not be enough to stop people from creating a “perfect” generation.
One ethical dilemma I myself have an unusually hard time with is the thought that gene therapy may cause doctors to develop a “God” complex. This makes me think of a quote, “With great knowledge comes great responsibility”. If doctors have the ability to tell parents that their unborn child is at risk of certain disease then does that doctor have the responsibility to tell their parents so they may approve preventative treatment? Then again, does telling the parents of the unborn the disappointing news going to have negative effects on their mental health? Would they have been better off not knowing the truth? There are so many questions that are going to be left unanswered until CRISPR is made legal. I do not blame scientist and the government for being afraid of the unknown. Making gene therapy more available will indefinitely change how medical care is given.
This leads to the question, will altering the human genome have an effect on personality. Today in lecture we talked about how traumatic brain injuries cause personality changes. I had no idea that so many traumatic brain injuries occur each year or that so many Americans are disabled due to their injuries. I was extremely surprised that 62-57% of those patients experienced behavioral changes and 60-80% were reported to have personality changes. Phineas Gage is a prime example of just how drastic brain injuries can be in changing a person’s personality. The brain is so tough and sensitive at the same time. Depending on the person the damage that occurs in the brain can take months to years to heal. While I was wakeboarding one summer day I crashed trying to jump the wake. I remember hitting my head on the water so hard that there was instant pain and my world started to spin uncontrollably. This was the first time I had a mild concussion. Months after I could still feel a similar headache coming on in the frontal region of my scalp if it was bumped. Soon after this injury, I noticed that I had a slight stutter and I had a harder time forming words to have a conversation. I am not sure if my concussion is related to my lack of communication but I will be interested to find out one day. 
The idea of Ayurveda is generally that the mind, body, and spirit need to be in harmony. We read an article this week discussing this idea that the mind and brain should be thought of as the same thing. That environment and genetics both have effects on how we think/act and biological function (pathways) in our brain. Then in class, we talked about traumatic brain injuries and how they change a person’s personality. I believe this is when our “spirit” comes into this triangle of harmony. If the brain is “unbalanced” then are the individual's harmful or hurtful actions really theirs to blame. The brain and the mind can be altered due to the harm done externally or internally. This brings up the question, can the spirit be altered from outside forces? Should Phineas Gage be held accountable for his actions after the brain injury? Is he still his “true self” even through suffering damage to the brain? I am constantly thinking of more questions as I think about ayurveda and balance. Essentially I want to understand, what defines spirit?
A therapist will treat their patients as if nurture is the only factor that is causing their patients to act differently, whereas medical providers will look more at the nature side and be quick to prescribe medication when therapy could be helpful for their patients. It was really interesting to read about the research studies discussed in this article. Although monkey genes are only 95% similar to humans there are much easier to study. I thought it was interesting that monkeys who experience less parental care were more likely to be aggressive and impulsive. Then researchers were able to link this to certain alleles and genes being expressed. This is just one example of how this idea of nature vs. nurture or mind vs. brain shouldn’t be thought of as separate entities.
In class, we discussed the relationship between the brain and mental illness. This lecture was interesting for me because I am also in abnormal psychology. In that class, we have been learning about mental illness but we don’t learn the biological sides of certain diseases. There is obvious evidence to suggest that experiences in an individual’s life can lead to mental illness, such as personality/mood disorders. Personally, I want to understand what is happening in the person’s brain pathways that may be causing the symptoms. I will need to do more research on the topic since it wasn’t talked about in class. Although, we did talk about the pathology of neurological and developmental disorders. It was depressing to learn that there are not many known treatments for disorders that occur in the nervous system. For example, patients with multiple sclerosis and dementia experience symptoms over a long period of time until the disease eventually takes complete control.
In conclusion, bacteria, brain, and the human genome all have a part to play in Ayurveda. If the microbes in your gut are altered it will offset your digestion, benefiting or harming your BODY. Injuries to your brain have been found to change your personality affecting your MIND. Gene therapy will alter the human genome changing physical characteristic but not much is known on how it will inevitably affect the SPIRIT of the participant. These are only a few examples of how these three categories could permanently or briefly changing your Ayurveda.