BIOETHICS KRM 2

8/7/2019 BIOETHICS KRM 2

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Ethics of Biotechnology


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Why Transgenic Plants

Herbicide resistance

Pest resistance Nutritional enhancement

Vitamins, etc.

New/improved products Oils, pharmaceuticals


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Concerns about Transgenic

Crops

Dangerous to humans?

Dangerous to the environment? Disruptive or unfair to poorer farmers?


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Pharmaceutical Production by

Bacteria Human-derived products may be dangerous

(infective agents) and in limited supply

Make them in bacteria

Safer

Cheaper

More available

Fusion protein strategy


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Fusion Protein

Production

Production of a two

polypeptidepharmaceutical in E.

coli

Insulin


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Pharmaceuticals

Synthesized in

ProkaryoticSystems

List is very

incomplete, withmore being added

every day


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Edible Vaccines Express human pathogen antigens in plant

Purify antigen, or

Eat edible plant for immunity


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Edible Vaccines

Healthy French

fries????


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Prenatal Diagnosis of Genetic

Diseases Cells from amniocentesis orCVS

Possible carriers by buccal swab

Analyze relevant loci

First for sickle cell anemia using an RFLP

technique

Now would be straight PCR approach


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SNP Analysis of a CF

Family

Allele specific

oligonucleotides for

wt and cystic fibrosissequences at the CFTR

locus (and point of

common SNP for this

disease)


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DNA Microarrays What alleles are present in a cell?

What genes are being expressed in a cell?

Can analyze up to 500,000+ loci/sequences

at a time

Can be combined with PCR to increase

sensitivity


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BetterCancer Diagnosis

Not all cancers that

look alike are

genetically similar Dont respond

similarly to a given

treatment regimen

More accuratediagnoses give better

prognoses for patients


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GeneC

hips Gene chips are small

and with automation

cost per locusanalyzed becomes

quite low


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Gene Therapy Once a hypothetical hope for the future

Became a reality beginning in 1990

Presently curtailed due to issues related to

using viral vectors for delivering therapeutic

gene


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Gene Therapy Protocol


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Issues for Gene Therapy

1990-1999 more than 4000 persons underwentgene therapy treatments

Limited successes

One person died due to tremendous inflammatoryresponse to vector (adenovirus-derived)

2000 French scientists restored immune systemfunction to 3 SCIDS patients

Additional persons treated successfully

Then two came down with leukemia

Insertion near oncogene LMO2 activated white celldivision


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Gene Therapy Ethics Somatic gene therapy

Treatment of genetic-based diseases

Germ line therapy

Change passed on to future generations

Enhancement gene therapy

Persons enhanced for specific trait(s)


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Genetic Fingerprinting for

Identity and Parentage First tests multilocus RFLP probes

Later tests involved restriction fragment length

polymorphisms (RFLP) and minisatellite loci

Tandem repeats of ~10-100 nucleotides with up to

several hundred repeats (variable number tandem

repeats or VNTRs)

Now use PCR-based analysis of microsatellitesor short tandem repeats (STRs)

Repeats of 2-5 nucleotides with several to more than

20 different repeat numbers (alleles) per locus


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Forensic Applications

DNA profiling has revolutionized forensic

investigations

First used in England in 1986 by Alec Jeffries

First U.S. use in Florida in 1987

1998 national database (CODIS)

Between 2000 and 2003 1600 crimes solved byDNA alone


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Early Forensic DNA Testing

Britain

2 rape-homicides

1983, 1986

Dr. Alec Jeffreys

Multilocus RFLP probes

First application of DNA

typing to a criminal case


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Early Forensic DNA Testing

Britain

2 rape-homicides

1983, 1986

Dr. Alec Jeffreys

Multilocus RFLP probes

First application of DNA

typing to a criminal case


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DNA Evidence Can Exonerate As

Well As Implicate


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When All Else Fails

claim to be a frequent

donor to sperm banks orinvolvement in human

cloning experiments.


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Application s of BioethicsApplication s of BioethicsUse full in large number of situation - needs for decision making

based on

Presupposition

Personal & Societal Values

Moral Values

Subjective interpretation

Application in dealing with value rich areas are as follows Research using various organism

Environmental degradation

Species diversity

Fetal tissue transplantation

Organ transplantation (Xenotransplantation) Stem Cell Study & storage

Cloning & Genomic Studies

Releasing of new transgenic organism

The new reproductive strategies


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During the process of handling of abiotic and biotic

environment created the unimaginative changes because of

ignorance of the ethics

Bioethics also give an opportunities in the following ways

Documents

BIOETHICS KRM 2