就在第二屆國(guó)際人類基因組編輯峰會(huì)召開(kāi)前一天，一則消息震驚了學(xué)術(shù)界。據(jù)媒體報(bào)道，“世界首例免疫艾滋病的基因編輯嬰兒”出生了。

11月26日，來(lái)自中國(guó)深圳的科學(xué)家賀建奎宣布，一對(duì)名為露露和娜娜的基因編輯嬰兒于11月在中國(guó)健康誕生。這對(duì)雙胞胎的一個(gè)基因經(jīng)過(guò)修改，使她們出生后即能天然抵抗艾滋病，這是世界首例免疫艾滋病的基因編輯嬰兒。然而消息發(fā)布后，引發(fā)了巨大的爭(zhēng)議。國(guó)家衛(wèi)健委表示將對(duì)此依法依規(guī)處理。

A Chinese scientist's attempt to produce the world's first gene-edited babies immune to HIV has sparked heated controversy among the public and academics.

中國(guó)一位科學(xué)家?guī)椭晃荒赣H成功生下了世界首例免疫艾滋病基因編輯嬰兒，此事在公眾和學(xué)界引發(fā)了巨大的爭(zhēng)議。

In an online video posted on Monday, He Jiankui, a biological researcher, announced that twin baby girls, Lulu and Nana, born healthy a few weeks ago, were conceived through in vitro fertilization(IVF) and genetically edited for immunity to HIV infection.

在本周一上傳的一段網(wǎng)絡(luò)視頻中，生物學(xué)者賀建奎宣布，雙胞胎女孩露露和娜娜幾周前健康出生。這兩名嬰兒的基因經(jīng)過(guò)了編輯，以使她們能夠天然抵抗艾滋病。她們的母親是通過(guò)試管嬰兒技術(shù)懷孕生產(chǎn)的。

據(jù)悉，研究人員們?cè)谑芫阎?，通過(guò)基因編輯技術(shù)，對(duì)CCR5基因進(jìn)行了修改。CCR5基因是HIV病毒入侵人體所需的主要輔助受體之一。理論上，如果這個(gè)基因出現(xiàn)變異或缺失，就有可能關(guān)閉HIV病毒入侵人體的大門，也就是說(shuō)，基因編輯后，嬰兒能夠天生免疫艾滋病。

"The mother started her pregnancy by regular IVF with one difference. Right after sending her husband's sperm into her eggs, we also sent in a little bit of protein and instructions for gene surgery," said He, from Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, speaking in the video. "Lulu and Nana were just a single cell when the surgery removed the doorway through which HIV enters to infect people."

來(lái)自廣東省深圳市南方科技大學(xué)的賀建奎在視頻中說(shuō)：“孩子的母親通過(guò)常規(guī)試管嬰兒技術(shù)受孕，但有一點(diǎn)不同的是，在我們將丈夫的精子注入卵子后，還注射了一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)蛋白質(zhì)和指引信號(hào)去做基因手術(shù)。在露露和娜娜還是單細(xì)胞的時(shí)候，通過(guò)手術(shù)關(guān)閉了艾滋病毒感染的大門?！?/p>

各方反應(yīng)

深圳衛(wèi)計(jì)委

The Shenzhen Health and Family Planning Commission said on Monday that it had not received any ethical assessment application for the study, which is a prerequisite for such experiments.

深圳衛(wèi)計(jì)委本周一表示，并未收到有關(guān)該項(xiàng)目的倫理審查報(bào)備，而這是開(kāi)展此類實(shí)驗(yàn)的先決條件。

The Associated Press reported on Monday that He sought and received approval for his project from the ethics committee of Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital, and an approval document from the hospital circulated online on Monday.

據(jù)美聯(lián)社本周一報(bào)道，賀建奎得到了深圳和美婦兒科醫(yī)院醫(yī)學(xué)倫理委員會(huì)的批準(zhǔn)，開(kāi)展該項(xiàng)目。該醫(yī)院的一份批準(zhǔn)文件也被上傳到網(wǎng)上。

深圳和美婦兒科醫(yī)院總經(jīng)理程珍介紹，這個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)不是在和美婦兒科醫(yī)院做的，孩子也不是在和美婦兒科醫(yī)院出生的，至于網(wǎng)上流傳的那張申請(qǐng)書，醫(yī)院也不了解情況，目前正在調(diào)查核實(shí)。

However, the Shenzhen commission said the hospital's ethics committee was not valid because the hospital did not register the committee's establishment with the commission as required.

然而，深圳衛(wèi)計(jì)委表示，該醫(yī)院的醫(yī)學(xué)倫理委員會(huì)未按要求進(jìn)行備案，因此不是合法機(jī)構(gòu)。

The commission has started an ethics investigation and will release the results to the public, it said.

深圳衛(wèi)計(jì)委已啟動(dòng)對(duì)該事件涉及倫理問(wèn)題的調(diào)查，有關(guān)調(diào)查結(jié)果將及時(shí)向公眾進(jìn)行公布。

南方科技大學(xué)

Southern University of Science and Technology said on Monday that it was not aware of the research, as He did not report it to the school.

南方科技大學(xué)周一表示，賀建奎并未向?qū)W校報(bào)告這一項(xiàng)目，因此學(xué)校并不知情。

The university said the academic council of its biology department, where He works as an associate professor, thinks that the research seriously violated academic ethics and rules. The university said it would immediately set up an independent investigation team for the matter.

南方科技大學(xué)表示，生物系學(xué)術(shù)委員會(huì)認(rèn)為這一研究嚴(yán)重違背了學(xué)術(shù)倫理和學(xué)術(shù)規(guī)范。南方科技大學(xué)將立即針對(duì)此事成立獨(dú)立調(diào)查組。賀建奎曾在該校生物系擔(dān)任副教授。

國(guó)家衛(wèi)健委

國(guó)家衛(wèi)健委對(duì)“基因編輯嬰兒”事件高度重視，回應(yīng)稱立即要求廣東省衛(wèi)生健康委認(rèn)真調(diào)查核實(shí)，本著對(duì)人民健康高度負(fù)責(zé)和科學(xué)原則，依法依規(guī)處理，并及時(shí)向社會(huì)公開(kāi)結(jié)果。

Bai Hua, head of Baihualin, a nongovernmental organization that promotes the interests of people with HIV/AIDS, said on Monday that the parents of the twins were likely to have HIV.

白樺林全國(guó)聯(lián)盟創(chuàng)始人“白樺”本周一稱，雙胞胎嬰兒的父母可能患有艾滋病。這家非政府機(jī)構(gòu)致力于推進(jìn)艾滋病感染者的利益。

He Jiankui spoke with Bai in April 2017, hoping to find people with HIV for the research, Bai said, adding that he spread the news and about 200 showed interest.

賀建奎在2017年4月聯(lián)系到該機(jī)構(gòu)，希望尋找艾滋病感染者參與研究。“白樺”還說(shuō)，他轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)了這一消息，有大約200人表達(dá)了參與意愿。

"Of the group infected with HIV, many have special conditions such as inability to conceive naturally, but the reality is that they cannot have babies through IVF in hospitals," he said. "Many of them thought the research gave them a chance to have babies who do not have the risk of getting HIV."

他說(shuō)：“在艾滋病感染者群體中，很多人有特殊情況，比如不能自然懷孕，但現(xiàn)實(shí)情況是他們無(wú)法在醫(yī)院做試管嬰兒。一些人認(rèn)為這一研究給了他們生兒育女的機(jī)會(huì)，孩子也不會(huì)有感染艾滋病的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)?！?/p>

基因編輯嬰兒引爭(zhēng)議

基因編輯嬰兒誕生的消息宣布后引來(lái)多方質(zhì)疑，質(zhì)疑的內(nèi)容集中于該項(xiàng)研究涉及的倫理問(wèn)題、必要性和安全性。

On Monday, more than 120 scholars from prestigious universities and institutes from China and abroad such as Tsinghua University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology strongly condemned the research in a signed statement, saying it lacks effective ethics oversight and amounts to human experiments.

本周一，超過(guò)120名來(lái)自國(guó)內(nèi)外著名大學(xué)及機(jī)構(gòu)的學(xué)者發(fā)布聯(lián)合聲明，強(qiáng)烈譴責(zé)這一研究，其中包括來(lái)自清華大學(xué)和麻省理工學(xué)院的一些學(xué)者。聲明中稱，該研究缺乏有效的倫理監(jiān)管，相當(dāng)于拿人類做實(shí)驗(yàn)。

In the statement published on weibo.com, they said any attempt to change human embryos with genetic editing and allow the birth of such babies entails a high degree of risk due to inaccuracies in existing editing technologies.

他們?cè)诎l(fā)布在微博上的聲明中說(shuō)，由于目前基因編輯技術(shù)的不確定性，直接進(jìn)行人胚胎改造并試圖產(chǎn)生嬰兒的任何嘗試都存在巨大風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。

有專家表示，“基因編輯嬰兒”的做法不僅僅是激進(jìn)，更是冒失，CCR5的基因即使被敲除，也無(wú)法完全阻斷艾滋病毒感染。從倫理上講，在CCR5基因編輯不能保證100%安全的情況下，堅(jiān)決不可以用于人體。

相關(guān)消息發(fā)布后，《科技日?qǐng)?bào)》對(duì)此提出了四點(diǎn)疑問(wèn)——

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said: "Genetic editing technology is far from mature and could have unforeseen consequences for the subjects."

中國(guó)疾控中心流行病學(xué)首席專家吳尊友說(shuō)：“基因編輯技術(shù)遠(yuǎn)未成熟，對(duì)被試者可能產(chǎn)生的影響無(wú)法預(yù)見(jiàn)。”

Some researchers are trying to use genetic editing technology to treat people infected with HIV, so the virus will not replicate and be transmitted to others, he said. "Animal experiments should be done to assess gains and risks for the subjects, before the possibility of doing this with humans."

他說(shuō)，一些研究人員正嘗試使用基因編輯技術(shù)治療艾滋病感染者，以使病毒不再?gòu)?fù)制和傳染他人。他說(shuō)：“類似的操作在考慮進(jìn)行人體實(shí)驗(yàn)之前需要進(jìn)行長(zhǎng)期的動(dòng)物實(shí)驗(yàn)，評(píng)估收益和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。”

Some scientists in Hong Kong for the summit think it could induce serious problems for a person's immune system, while others think people should not be overly scared because it would not affect the core genome.

一些在香港參會(huì)的科學(xué)家認(rèn)為，基因編輯可能使人體的免疫系統(tǒng)出現(xiàn)嚴(yán)重問(wèn)題。還有些學(xué)者認(rèn)為，人們也不必過(guò)度驚慌，因?yàn)檫@不會(huì)影響到核心的基因組。

Tsui Lap-chee, president of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong, said if one gene is edited, it will affect others that interact with it. And the whole genome, a collection of genes, may also be affected.

香港科學(xué)院院長(zhǎng)徐立之說(shuō)，如果某個(gè)基因被編輯，將影響到與之相互作用的其他基因。那么整個(gè)基因組，一大批基因，都可能被影響。

Robin Lovell-Badge, group leader and head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, said "gene editing is not something to be scared about", and he doesn't think what He has done will affect a human's core genome. Side effects may not be very serious as there are millions of healthy people with the exact same mutation.

峰會(huì)小組長(zhǎng)、弗朗西斯·克里克研究所干細(xì)胞生物學(xué)和發(fā)育遺產(chǎn)學(xué)分部負(fù)責(zé)人羅賓-羅弗爾-巴杰說(shuō)：“不必對(duì)基因編輯感到恐慌?！彼⒉徽J(rèn)為賀建奎的研究將會(huì)影響到人類的核心基因組?；蚓庉嫷母弊饔每赡芤矝](méi)那么嚴(yán)重，因?yàn)橛袛?shù)百萬(wàn)健康人其實(shí)都攜帶有相同的基因突變。

來(lái)源：中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)、中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)網(wǎng)、央視新聞

翻譯&編輯：yaning