The world's first cloned monkey was born in China! How far are we from cloning?
Yesterday, the world's leading biological journal "Cell" published in a cover article online Chinese scientists successfully cloned primate rhesus monkeys results. Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience broke through the world of somatic cell monkey monkeys!
On November 27 last year, the world's first somaclonal monkey, "Zhongzhong," was born at the Non-human Primate Platform of the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences. On December 5, the second cloned monkey "Hua Hua" was born.
How, our Chinese Academy of Sciences cloned out of the "middle" and "Hua Hua" is not very cute?
Having said that after the success of this experiment, immediately caused a sensation in the world, overseas major media competing reports.
The Atlantic Monthly quotes Christopher Navarra, a biologist at San Antonio, Texas, as saying that cloned monkeys may be very useful for the study of certain diseases and that children can be immediately studied on young monkeys.
However, research on Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease may have to wait for decades. The species of macaques that Zhonghua and Huahua belong to usually live between 25 and 30 years of age.
Overseas netizens also unwilling to come onlookers.
Philosophical question: If Clone Obama, clones can go to run for president of the United States do?
Ready to meet the "apes rise."
Who knows 22 years from cloning sheep to cloning monkeys? Cloning really hard.
Trump is willing to donate his own cells.
It seems that many people are very interested in cloning the president. Or, many people will ask: Cloned monkeys are successful, the cloning of people still far?
In response, the answer given by the New York Times said that everyone is unfounded - "Yes, China has cloned monkeys, but this does not mean that you are the next"
Why does the New York Times say that? With questions, let's look down together.
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Monkey how to deal with ethical issues?
Yesterday, the Beijing News reporter interviewed project leader, Sun Qiang, director of Non-Primate Primate Research Station of Neurological Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, learned some details of this experiment and discussed the ethical issues in animal experiments.
Beijing News: Primates are human close relatives, but there are many primates, why do you choose to experiment with rhesus monkeys?
Sun Qiang: Because cynomolgus macaques and rhesus monkeys are the most commonly used non-human primates experimental animals.
Beijing News: I heard that you are not using adult monkeys, but the removal of embryos on the organization, the embryo development for several months?
Sun Qiang: We chose not embryos, but fetal tissue of the abortion. This is a difference. Tissues derived from the abortion of the monkeys about 60 days of age.
Beijing News: Where do you choose somatic cells? Is cell differentiation completely?
Sun Qiang: We chose the fetal monkey fibroblasts, is a differentiated somatic cells.
Beijing News: What are the differences between embryonic cells and somatic cells, why somatic cells can no longer develop into individual?
Sun Qiang: Embryonic cells have developmental pluripotency, but a limited number. Somatic cells perform specific functions that are completely differentiated and have no developmental pluripotency. And then become all-round cells, the need for in vitro proliferation. The two embryos are constructed in different ways. Embryonic cells are formed by natural fertilization. Somatic cells need to become embryos and nuclear transfer is necessary.
Beijing News: What is the general process of somatic cloning?
Sun Qiang: You need to enucleate the oocytes, and then the somatic cells injected into enucleated oocytes, and fusion activation, cultured in vitro into cloned embryos, and then transplanted to the surrogate mother monkey uterus, fully developed, as Clone offspring.
Beijing News: What are the difficulties cloning primates?
Sun Qiang: I also introduced before, to nuclear difficult, low rate of cloned embryos.
Beijing News: What is the meaning of primate cloning?
Sun Qiang: To put it simply, it is to provide animal models that are evolutionarily closer to human beings for biological and medical research and new drug research and development, and solve the problem of long primate breeding cycles and individual differences.
Beijing News: Cloning of primates, and for human research, the existence of ethical dilemma?
Sun Qiang: We strictly follow the ethical rules of experimental animals to carry out relevant research, at the same time the establishment of the technology for the future as the main model of the monkey to study the use of animals greatly reduced.
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Clone monkey how many hurdles?
Sun Qiang introduction, the reason why cloned monkeys so many years did not succeed there are three major difficulties.
First, the nucleus is not easy to identify, "to the nuclear" difficult. As the recipient's oocyte, the nucleus must be "ablated" to accommodate the somatic cell nucleus and reconstitute the cell. However, it is very difficult for the monkey's egg nucleus to nucleate. Comparison of mouse oocytes and cynomolgus monkeys (oocytes) oocytes, we can see that the proportion of mouse oocytes in the nucleus is very large, it is easy to remove; while the nucleus of cynomolgus monkey oocytes Very small, very difficult to operate.
Second, egg cells are easily activated in advance. Egg cells in a dormant state, need to be activated to continue to develop, and then to develop. In the case of natural fertilization, the egg is activated at the same time as it is fertilized. The somatic cloning, the need for external stimuli to activate. Therefore, the timing of "wake up" is very precise. However, using traditional methods, the monkey's egg cells can easily "wake up" early, often resulting in cloning "programs" that do not function properly.
Third, the development of somatic cloned embryos is inefficient. Sun Qiang to the data show that the rate of blastocyst development in monkeys (fertilized eggs develop some time to blastocysts) far lower than cattle, mice, pigs, lower quality blastocysts. Fertilized egg implantation, it is easy to premature or abortion. In 2004, the National University of Singapore experiment, seven embryos, all abortion within 60 days.
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Can research promote Alzheimer's disease treatment?
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Neuroscience, Brain Science and Intelligent Technology Center for excellence in innovation Pu Mu-ming, said the success of somatic clone building monkeys first of all prove that the rhesus monkeys can be used to clone cells.
"Monkeys can be truly useful animal models." The importance of somaclonal monkeys is that large numbers of monkeys with the same genetic background can be produced within a year. Complicated and accurate gene editing can be performed in cultured cells, followed by nuclear transfer Producing a large number of embryos with identical genotypes, "says Proudhon," a group of monkeys genetically genetically identical to the genetic background were born with a maternal vector that is the key technique for making animal models of brain science and human disease. "
In addition, he also introduced that cloning monkeys can reduce the interference between individuals and reduce the number of experimental animals greatly.
The use of somatic cells in vitro to do gene editing, accurate screening of somatic cells of the same genotype, and then use nuclear transfer method to generate a large number of embryos of the same genotype,
According to experts in neurology, the reason why the vast majority of brain diseases can not be effectively treated is one of the main reasons for the development of drug-generic mouse models and humans far apart. The drugs developed are mostly ineffective or have side effects in human detection . The success of somaclonal monkey will promote our country to take the lead in developing a new pharmaceutical R & D industrial chain based on the animal model of non-human primates diseases, and promote the development of brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and autism, immunodeficiency, tumor, Metabolic disease drug development process.
▲ the world's first somatic monkey clone was born in China! What is the meaning of the animation? Beijing News reported moving news
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Cloned monkey was born, the cloning of people still far?
In this regard, "New York Times," the argument is justified, the next is cloned, it will not be you (we humans).
First, cloning primates is an inefficient job with a low success rate.
The Sun Qiang team used the female monkey's fetal cells as somatic cells and constructed 109 early embryos, of which 79 embryos survived in the laboratory and were transferred to the uterus of 21 female monkeys.
Six pregnant mothers were pregnant, but in the end only two were born, with a technical success rate of about 30% and primate success rates of around 5%.
Second, cloning adult cells is not easy.
Scientists have tried to clone adult cells, but these attempts have failed. Older cells, cloning the more difficult, and the greater the likelihood of surrogate miscarriage.
If scientists want to clone an adult monkey, then this method is currently difficult to succeed.
Cloning species will have health problems but also solve the mystery, which makes some researchers cautious. Anthony Perry of the University of Bath said:
"You will not use this if everything is unknown, and if you want to build a genetic model of the disease, the last thing you want is to use a model you are not familiar with."
In addition, the ethical issues of clichés are an insurmountable wall.
At present, many countries have promulgated relevant laws prohibiting the cloning of human beings. At the same time, research on animals has been declining due to budget cuts and policy tightening.
American chimpanzee biomedical research has nearly 100 years of history, but now, their research era has gone.
In 2011, Francis Collins, president of the National Institutes of Health, announced that the National Institutes of Health would not use chimpanzees for new biomedical research, saying:
"Our closest relatives in the animal kingdom deserve special attention and respect."
Humans and chimpanzees share 98% of the DNA, and many primates show the world their superior intelligence and rich social life. As a result, biomedical research institutes have always emphasized the importance of research.
Dr. Collins's decision reflects the thinking of scientists on ethical issues.
But in fact, poverty is also an important factor. The cost of chimpanzees' care is high, and some agencies have found, over the long term, that this may not necessarily be the best model for studying human disease.
In 2015, after many discussions, the National Institutes of Health decided to return all the chimpanzees, which at that time had about 220 chimpanzees.
In the same year, the Fish and Wildlife Authority listed all chimpanzees as endangered species, prohibiting individuals and institutions from hosting chimpanzees for biomedical experiments.
Since then, the government-owned chimpanzees have been sent to chimpanzee shelters, where they will have a wealth of social life and vast outdoor space.
So, if you want to apply cloning technology to human beings, I'm afraid there is still a long way to go.