Tag: gmo

GMO Corn, Glyphosate Pose Unacceptable Health Risks, New Scientific Analysis Shows

A new scientific analysis prepared by CONAHCYT, Mexico’s National Council for Humanities, Science and Technology, argues there are unacceptable health risks for Mexican people who consume genetically modified (GM) corn and glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide.

The 200-page document with 1,200 references — posted here for the first time in English — underpins Mexico’s 2023 decree to restrict the use of GM corn in tortillas and other minimally processed corn products, and to phase out the use of glyphosate.

The U.S. challenged those policies as unfair trade practices under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). A decision in that case is expected imminently.

Whatever the ruling, Mexico’s new President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo has said her government will not allow the cultivation of GM corn.

Sheinbaum Pardo also recently announced plans to try to place GM corn restrictions in Mexico’s Constitution; “This is the best defense we have for biodiversity as well as for our health,” she said.

Mexico’s stand for food sovereignty and the scientific evidence they gathered to support their case have worldwide relevance, as nations across the Global South grapple with seed laws that would open the doors to GM foods.

It also comes at a time when U.S. consumers are losing faith in the safety of our food supply, according to a recent Gallup poll.

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Scientists Are Developing CRISPR Gene-editing Tools to Cure Inherited Diseases — But There’s a Catch

CRISPR-based gene-editing tools are being developed to correct specific defective sections of the genome to cure inherited genetic diseases, with some applications already in clinical trials.

However, there is a catch: under certain conditions, the repair can lead to large-scale deletions and rearrangements of DNA — as in the case of targeting the NCF1 gene in chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). This was reported by a team of researchers and physicians from the ImmuGene clinical research program at the University of Zurich.

Their findings have important implications not just for gene editing-based therapy, but also for CRISPR-mediated gene editing of animals and plants, where the same types of large-scale genetic damage could be triggered.

Indeed, because such editing is carried out with much less caution in non-human organisms, the likelihood of such large-scale damage occurring is hugely increased (see below on multiplexing).

The study also shows that attempts to avoid these problems by using adaptations of CRISPR gene editing technologies, such as prime and base editing, may not succeed.

This research on CGD is also only the latest in a series of studies that have repeatedly shown that different types of unintended mutations resulting from gene editing can affect the functioning of multiple gene systems, with potentially damaging consequences.

What is CGD?

CGD is a rare hereditary disease that affects about one in 120,000 people. The disease impairs the component of the immune system responsible for fighting off infections, which can be life-threatening to the patient.

One variant of CGD is caused by the absence of two letters in the DNA base unit gene sequence which codes for the NCF1 protein. This error results in the inability of blood cells known as neutrophils to produce an enzyme complex that plays an essential role in the immune defense against bacterial, yeast, and fungal infections.

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Bill Gates uses vaccines and genetically modified crops to impoverish and reduce the world’s population

Bill Gates, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has funded various scientific research programs and vaccination initiatives, such as “Grand Challenges Explorations.”

It’s not only his investment in vaccines globally that is the problem.  He has also invested in companies that contribute to poverty and pollution and seeks maximum returns on his investments regardless of the social cost.

Gates’ advocacy for vaccines is intertwined with population control, with many concluding his true interest is in reduced fertility or even the elimination of a significant portion of the world’s population.

In addition to vaccines, he has also supported genetically modified organisms in food, which have been linked to health and environmental issues such as the development of super-bugs and super-weeds.

His Foundation has invested in genetically modified crops research, claiming to help African farmers grow their own food but it has led to dependence on large corporations for seeds, pesticides and equipment.

You probably think the above is an introduction to an article written fairly recently, but it’s not.  The article that follows was written 9 years ago.

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Hardy, Radiation-Resistant Organism Could Rewrite Your Genetic Code to Cure High Cholesterol

Scientists are programming one of the world’s hardiest, most radiation-resistant organisms to rewrite a specific gene, allowing them to cure a common type of inherited high cholesterol. Dubbed TnpB and originating from the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, this exceptionally robust microbe also survives cold, dehydration, vacuum, and acid, making it an ideal tool for genetic editing.

Although the team has only tested its “genetic scissors” on mice models with an inherited predisposition to a type of high cholesterol called hypercholesterolemia, which currently affects 31 million Americans, the researchers believe their approach will one day allow them to cure high cholesterol in humans by essentially rewiring their genetic code.

Reprogramming TnpB to Cure High Cholesterol

In the published study outlining the new genetic reprogramming approach, the researchers note that genetic editing has shown significant promise in editing certain inherited health conditions by essentially “reprogramming” specialized bacteria to genetically edit the faulty gene in a person’s genetic code with a properly functioning one. However, the process, made famous by the CRISPR gene editing tool, has resulted in mixed successes.

One of the primary limiting factors of the CRISPR-Cas organism most commonly used in genetic editing is its size. According to the study authors, the microbe is too large to be precisely targeted, which “creates challenges when trying to deliver them to the right cells in the body.”

More recently, researchers in genetic editing have begun to focus on the organism’s “evolutionary progenitors,” some of which are much smaller than the CRISPR-Cas microbe. Among the most promising is TnpB, whose smaller size and hardiness offer scientists a new path for genetic editing.

These smaller progenitors are less efficient at reprogramming and show limited targeting ability due to their limited recognition requirements when binding DNA than the larger CRISPR-Cas microbes. Now, the researchers behind this study say they may have finally overcome that limitation, resulting in a much more efficient method of targeting TnpB to cure high cholesterol.

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Can Gene-Editing Pesticides Pose Risk to Humans?

The biotech industry has been tinkering with the genetic material of living organisms and crops using CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) gene-editing technology, resulting in changes to taste profiles, extended shelf life and enhanced resistance to specific pathogens, but with unknown health consequences.1

These genetic modifications have, so far, been conducted within the confines of controlled laboratory environments. However, a disturbing new development is on the horizon — new pesticides designed to edit genes may soon be available, touted to be “more environmentally friendly” than chemical pesticides.2

A team of scientists recently raised concerns about the possible consequences of unleashing this product in an open environment, where it can affect not just its intended targets but also a wide range of nontarget organisms, possibly causing far-reaching ecological destruction. And leading the list of potential collateral damage are us humans.3

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Genetically edited food to be deregulated in Australia and NZ

If this goes through it will remove our right to know if our food is natural or genetically edited. And yes, this includes organic food. FSANZ is Australia and New Zealand’s Food Authority.

They have a current proposal open (ending COB Tuesday 10th September) to allow genetically edited food to be grown and sold without any safety testing or labelling. FSANZ Proposal P1055 – Definitions for gene technology and new breeding techniques can be found here: https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/food…

Answer questions on the FSANZ portal here: https://consultations.foodstandards.g…

Or email FSANZ your own submission- submissions@foodstandards.gov.au FSANZ asserts that genetically edited food is the same as natural- conventional food, that it has the same “characteristics”.

Under this definition lab meat may be seen as the same as meat, as the lab meat has added synthetic vitamins and minerals which match the natural levels of vitamins and minerals in meat.

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‘Gene Scissors’ Technology Causes Unintended Changes in Chromosomes

A recently published study in Nature Genetics shows that the use of CRISPR/Cas “gene scissors” causes unintended genetic changes that are different from random mutations.

According to the study, major structural changes in chromosomes occur much more frequently in the genomic regions targeted by the “gene scissors” than would otherwise be the case.

These results also have implications for the risk assessment of plants obtained from new genetic engineering, TestBiotech reported.

According to the European Union Commission and the European Food Safety Authority, unintentional genetic changes resulting from the use of CRISPR/Cas “gene scissors” are no different from random mutations.

However, a new method of data evaluation shows that this assumption is wrong.

The use of CRISPR/Cas completely interrupts the double DNA strand, thus causing some of the chromosomes to be temporarily separated from the main section.

In the separated (distal) section, the chromosomes can restructure and larger sequences of DNA can be lost (deletions), reversed (inversions) or inserted in the wrong place (insertions).

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All Things Bugs: Bill Gates, U.S. Military Among Investors in GMO Insect Protein for Humans

While regulators in non-U.S. countries, including Singapore, have issued approvals for specific insect-based foods, in the U.S., the regulatory landscape is murkier — there is no legal approval process or clear-cut prohibition of insects for human consumption.

As a result, insect-containing foods have reached U.S. consumers, even though one of the few existing U.S. laws that address insects in the food supply refers to them as “filth” and a form of “adulteration.”

Crickets and grasshoppers reach U.S. consumers in a variety of forms, from protein bars to protein shakes. They’re also found on restaurant menus and are promoted as pet food and animal feed ingredients.

With few U.S. regulatory barriers to contend with, investors like Bill Gates and Big Food giants such as Tyson Foods have also begun investing in “alternative protein” startups — despite mainstream media “fact-checks” claiming Gates doesn’t support the consumption of insects.

Internist Dr. Meryl Nass, founder of Door to Freedom, told The Defender lax U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations — under which many insect-containing foods can be classified as “Generally Regarded as Safe” (GRAS) — “means they don’t require testing” and enable the FDA to “look the other way.”

“How long will it take before we learn whether these foods are safe? It could take generations,” Nass said.

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Scientists Used CRISPR Gene Editing to Make Chickens Resist Bird Flu — Here’s What Happened

Scientists who used the gene-editing technology CRISPR to create chickens resistant to avian influenza also showed how quickly a dangerous bird flu could mutate from laboratory chickens to humans, critics of a new study in the journal Nature Communications told The Defender.

The authors of the study, led by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, altered the genetic code of 10 chickens to make them resistant to a bird-flu virus and then exposed them to the virus.

They also included 10 chickens in the study that were not genetically altered. All 10 chickens not genetically altered got sick when they were exposed to the virus. Only one of the genetically altered chickens got sick with the bird flu.

Altering a species’ DNA “promises a new way to make permanent changes in the disease resistance of an animal,” University of Edinburgh embryologist Mike McGrew, Ph.D., an author of the study, said at an Oct. 5 news briefing announcing the peer-reviewed research.

“This can be passed down through all the gene-edited animals, to all the offspring.”

According to the study, “Chickens genetically resistant to avian influenza could prevent future outbreaks. … Breeding for resistance and resilience to disease has significant potential in farmed poultry,” freeing farmers from routinely having to vaccinate birds.

But Jonathan Latham, executive director of the Bioscience Resource Project, who has a master’s degree in crop genetics and a Ph.D. in virology, told The Defender,

“The experiments were ultimately a failure of ‘the operation was a success but the patient died’ variety.”

When the 10 genetically altered chickens were exposed to a much higher dose of bird flu — more in line with what the chickens could be exposed to in nature or a factory farm setting — five of the 10 chickens developed the flu.

Virus samples collected from the infected, genetically altered birds showed the virus had made several mutations that seemed to allow it to bind to the ANP32A protein to replicate in the chickens, the study reported.

The virus also mutated a workaround to bind to two other related proteins for replication.

Worse yet, according to Latham, mutations also helped the virus replicate more efficiently in human cells.

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Chinese scientists create 90% lethal Ebola-like virus to study eye disorders

Chinese scientists have genetically modified a virus that imitates Ebola infection. This virus has caused severe eye ulcers and ultimately wiped out an entire group of hamsters.

Researchers are hopeful that this study will aid in the research of Ebola-related eye disorders.

In this study, vesicular stomatitis, typically found in livestock, was harboring the Ebola virus. When they gave it to the hamsters, the entire group died after the ulcers in their eyes worsened.

New model reveals promising insights into Ebola virus research

Vesicular stomatitis (VSV), carries a part of the Ebola virus called glycoprotein (GP). It helps the virus to enter and infect the cells. Five female and five male hamsters that were up to three weeks old died within three days.

They showed symptoms similar to those in Ebola patients, such as weight loss, multi-organ failure, severe eye inflammation, and ulcers. Additionally, the hamsters had high levels of the virus in their bodies.

Scientists are optimistic that this new model could help in future research on Ebola-related eye disorders. “All animals died within 2-3 days after infection,” the researchers observed, noting that this model could be useful for testing Ebola vaccines.

According to the scientists, this model allowed for quick preclinical testing of Ebola virus countermeasures in BSL-2 conditions.

They added, “This surrogate model is a safe, effective, and cost-efficient tool for rapid preclinical evaluation of medical countermeasures against the Ebola virus under BSL-2 conditions. It has the potential to accelerate technological advances and breakthroughs in combating Ebola virus disease.”

More accessible to researchers for studying

The Ebola virus causes internal bleeding and tissue damage and is spread by direct contact with infected body fluids, such as blood or sweat, or by touching contaminated objects. This is significant because studying Ebola requires expensive and high-level biological security, like that in BSL-4 facilities.

As a result, the virus has been less accessible to scientists. According to the scientists, the development of countermeasures against EBOV has been hindered by the lack of ideal animal models. The reason was that EBOV requires handling in BSL-4 facilities.

In the study, they also analyzed the influence of the virus. They found that the virus had accumulated in critical tissues. Like for example the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines, and brain. As the study showed, the highest viral loads were found in the liver, and the lowest levels were found in the brain.

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