The decoding of the human genome will allow pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs that act on the mechanism of the disease and identify susceptible genes (to diseases, like the common cold) for early detection and prevention. Furthermore, this information will allow pharmaceutical companies to identify from a certain individuals’ genetic make up if they are likely to react adversely to a particular drug. It will also allow the companies to identify people who would benefit from particular drug treatments. The last two areas are important in the field of pharmacogenetics, this is the tailoring of drug treatment to the genetic make-up of the patient while maximising the drug efficiency and minimizing the possible side-effects.
Before any information on the human genome sequence was available, when individuals didn’t respond well to prescribed drugs the drug was blamed. However, over time we have gathered more information and expanded our knowledge on the human genome and actually discovered that the adverse reaction was down to the individual and not the drug. This is because within all of us there are known to be polymorphisms. In order for us to understand this I must describe the science behind this idea.
Genes are made of 4 nitrogenous bases these are adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine. Adenine is complementary to thymine and guanine is complementary to cytosine. If you imagine 2 parallel lines a few centimetres apart with 3 projecting squares off the top line facing the bottom line. Going from left to right, the first box containing adenine, the second guanine and the third cytosine. Now imagine another 3 squares projecting off the bottom line with thymine in the first square, cytosine in the second and guanine in the third, from left to right. Each one of the squares is complementary to the opposite square, so adenine with thymine, guanine with cytosine and cytosine with guanine. This is called complementary base pairing, now if one of these nitrogenous bases is deleted or misplaced this will alter which nitrogenous base is placed on the opposite side. So if in my example adenine was misplaced and cytosine was put in its’ place, this would alter the base that is placed opposite and would change from thymine to guanine to complement the cytosine.
These are polymorphisms; there are many polymorphisms in every single gene of every single cell of every person on this planet and depending on how much the polymorphism has affected the gene, e.g. If only one nitrogenous base has been misplaced compared to a complete row. This determines how we react to anything from food to air; these polymorphisms are responsible for many allergies and even diseases such as Down’s syndrome. However, not all polymorphisms are responsible for allergies some polymorphisms have no effect at all.
Genomics will alert us to these polymorphisms, gene therapy will enable us to combat poymorphisms and pharmacogenetics companies will design drugs that are effective against these polymorphisms. This all will only happen with time whilst we expand our knowledge, enabling us to detect polymorphisms much earlier and deal with them in a more effective way.
In recent years the advances that have been made in genetic technologies and the achievement of the decoding of the human genome sequence have opened the way for advances in understanding the causes of disease, disease prevention and developments of treatments.
Some of the benefits of the mapping of the human genome sequence may be around the corner, however, it must be made clear that it will take decades for the full potential of the knowledge and information we have gathered from the human genome sequence to be realised. The media have misled the public into thinking that the benefits will be realised quickly. However, the government has not done a lot to ensure that likely time scales and potential consequences are made clear.
This new information and knowledge that we are to gain will be crucial in helping to unravel the links between genetic information, environment and lifestyle in the cause of human disease. We must treat this information sensitively and responsibly to not invade the privacy of others.
The Human Genome Project will undoubtedly affect every one of us, be it directly or indirectly. However, the main fear is that we do not know of all the possible consequences. I believe it is this that is responsible for the doubts in the publics’ mind; it could be argued that we will never know every single possible consequence unless we actually begin experimenting.
Some would argue that the majority of possible consequences regarding the Human Genome Project are exaggerated and that fears of a mutant life form are non-existent.
I do not fully believe in the possibility of a mutant life form, purely because this is an idea that people have taken on through films. However, I wouldn’t say it is impossible because scientists have cloned a sheep and with the decoding of the human genome sequence almost completed, other than ethical issues I can’t see why it can’t be done to a human and maybe in the future genes that will give the human super human strength and intelligence could be inserted into the humans’ DNA. This could be done a large scale to create a superior race that would have all the desired traits of other humans such as good looks, intelligence and high efficiency.
Isn’t this already being done? Babies are born a pre-determined sex, with pre- determined eye/skin/hair colour. The last time attempts were made at creating the superior race; it resulted in millions of Jews being executed by the Nazis.
Finally, for now I believe we should aim to create a better world, where disease such as small pox isn’t rampant in third world countries. We should use this information and knowledge carefully and aim to eliminate terminal illnesses such as AIDs and cancers so that we don’t watch relatives and friends die helplessly.
