Gene delivery is the process of introducing foreign genetic material,such as DNA or RNA, into host cells. Genetic material must reach the genome of the host cell to induce gene expression. Successful gene delivery…can either integrate into the genome or replicate independently of it.
This requires foreign DNA to be synthesized as part of a vector, which is designed to enter the desired host cell and deliver the transgene to that cell’s genome. Vectors utilized as the method for gene delivery can be… chemical…heat shock…calcium phosphate…nanoparticles…physical force…microinjection…sound waves…magnetic fields…bacterial delivery, viral delivery…
Virus mediated gene delivery utilizes the ability of a virus to inject its DNA inside a host cell and takes advantage of the virus’ own ability to replicate and implement their own genetic material. Viral methods of gene delivery…have high efficiency… [Emphasis added] because the structure of the virus prevents degradation…of the DNA it is delivering to the nucleus of the host cell….
In fact, viruses should not even be considered organisms, in the strictest sense, because they are not free-living—i.e., they cannot reproduce and carry on metabolic processes without a host.
Is the reader noticing that this description of viruses encapsulates the essence of evil spirits? Viruses are a type of idol – material forms produced for the purpose of interacting with humans in the four dimensional material world.
Viruses are quintessential parasites; they depend on the host cell for almost all of their life-sustaining functions…
Viruses are also energy parasites; unlike cells, they cannot generate or store energy…The virus derives energy, as well as all other metabolic functions, from the host cell. The invading virus uses the nucleotides and amino acids of the host cell to synthesize its nucleic acids and proteins, respectively….
Retrovirusesmaintain their genome (total collection of genes) as ribonucleic acid (RNA),in contrast to most other organisms, including humans, which maintain their genomes as deoxy-ribonucleic acid (DNA). In DNA containing organisms, sections of the DNA reproduce themselves as pieces of RNA, which leave the storage facility (the nucleus) to replicate as proteins to do the work of the cell. Retroviruses reverse this process. When a retrovirus injects RNA inside a host cell, it is reverse transcribed into DNA and reverse integrated into the host’s DNA in a process called integration. Now the host’s altered DNA is used to make the virus’ RNA, the genome and the outer coat. The RNA can become packaged in new viral particles, which are released from the cell (a process called budding). The replication cycle can be repeated over and over again with other host cells.
The first genetically engineered plants to be produced for human consumption were introduced in the mid-1990s. Today, approximately 90 percent of the corn, soybeans, and sugar beets on the market are GMOs. Genetically engineered crops produce higher yields, have a longer shelf life, are resistant to diseases and pests, and even taste better. These benefits are a plus for both farmers and consumers. For example, higher yields and longer shelf life may lead to lower prices for consumers, and pest-resistant crops means that farmers don’t need to buy and use as many pesticides to grow quality crops. GMO crops can thus be kinder to the environment than conventionally grown crops.
Genetically modified foods do cause controversy, however. Genetic engineering typically changes an organism in a way that would not occur naturally. It is even common for scientists to insert genes into an organism from an entirely different organism. This raises the possible risk of…the genetically engineered foreign DNA spreading to non-GMO plants and animals. [Emphasis added.]
Different types of tissues from genetically engineered pigs are already being tested in humans. In China, researchers have transplanted insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells from gene-edited pigs into people with diabetes. A team in South Korea says it’s ready to try transplanting pig corneas into people, once it gets government approval. And at Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers announced in October that they had used gene-edited pig skin as a temporary wound covering for a person with severe burns. The skin patch, they say, worked as effectively as human skin, which is much harder to obtain…One day…genetically modified pigs…will be sliced open, their hearts, kidneys, lungs and livers sped to transplant centers to save desperately sick patients from death.
Technological alteration of the human genome is happening now.
a scientist in China announced that he had created the world’s first genetically edited babies, twin girls who were born this month.
The researcher, He Jiankui, said that he had altered a gene in the embryos, before having them implanted in the mother’s womb, with the goal of making the babies resistant to infection with H.I.V.
“It’s scary,” said Dr. Alexander Marson, a gene editing expert at the University of California in San Francisco.
While the United States and many other countries have made it illegal to deliberately alter the genes of human embryos, it is not against the law to do so in China…
Dr. He…said he did it by directing Crispr-Cas9 to deliberately disable a gene, known as CCR₅, that is used to make a protein…
In an interview with the A.P. he indicated that he hoped to set an example to use genetic editing… “I feel a strong responsibility that it’s not just to make a first, but also make it an example,” he told the A.P. He added: “Society will decide what to do next.”
Do I really need to spell it out? Society will decide to compete.
Since Chinese researchers announced the first gene editing of a human embryo 2 years ago, many expected that similar work in the United States was inevitable. Last night, the MIT Technology Review broke the news that such experiments have happened. The research, led by embryologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, also reportedly sidestepped problems of incomplete and off-target editing that plagued previous attempts, though details could not be confirmed since the work is not yet published and Mitalipov has so far declined to comment…
“It’s one more step on the path to potential clinical application,” says bioethicist Jeffrey Kahn of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who served on a committee convened by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Medicine in Washington, D.C., to address gene editing. The panel’s report earlier this year concluded that a clinical trial involving embryo editing would be ethically allowable under narrow circumstances.
So what is this CRISPR technology?
CRISPR is short for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat.” It’s a bit of DNA that scientists first noticed in the immune system of bacteria.
When a virus attacks, the bacteria memorize the virus’s DNA and file its profile in their CRISPR…CRISPR can turn genes on or off, or make them work in a different way…
There are lots of types of cancer, and they all are linked to problems in genes. So CRISPR holds promise.
Interesting how that logo of a space vehicle speeding back from space towards earth matches an electron microscope image of a sperm darting towards an egg.
How on earth do they know where amongst the almost 100 miles of strands of genes and genetic material making up the 46 human chromosomes is the gene they want to tamper with?
The first published human embryo–editing work, in 2015…revealed major shortcomings in applying the increasingly popular CRISPR gene-editing technology. The few embryos that took up the change made by CRISPR were a patchwork of edited and unchanged cells, and… unintended edits outside the targeted gene.
Knowing which gene to edit and where it is located, and having the skill to access it would seem to be beyond human ability. But somehow the technology has developed with incredible speed.
1970s: Genetic Engineering Takes Off Unexpectedly
With discoveries burgeoning across the globe…the world as we know it is continually bettered by the efforts of scientists who drive genome engineering technology forward.
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the great feats of exploration in history…Beginning on October 1, 1990 and completed in April 2003, the HGP gave us the ability, for the first time, to read nature’s complete genetic blueprint for building a human being.
And redesigning that being.
One of the simplest processes for understanding how the human body redesigns itself is the immune system.
The subpart of a pathogen that causes an immune response is called an antigen. [Think of it like the subpart of an antagonist – a raised fist – causing your defensive response of raising your own fists.] The antibodies produced in response to the pathogen’s antigen…trained to recognize one specific antigen…When the human body is exposed to an antigen for the first time, it takes time for the immune system to respond and produce antibodies specific to that antigen.
In the meantime, the person is susceptible to becoming ill.
Once the body produces antibodies in its primary response to an antigen, it also creates antibody-producing memory cells, which remain alive even after the pathogen is defeated by the antibodies. If the body is exposed to the same pathogen more than once, the antibody response is much faster and more effective than the first time around because the memory cells are at the ready to pump out antibodies against that antigen.
This means that if the person is exposed to the dangerous pathogen in the future, their immune system will be able to respond immediately, protecting against disease.
How vaccines help
There are several types of vaccines, including:
- Inactivated vaccines that use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease. They are not as strong as live vaccines and require booster shots periodically.
- Hepatitis A
- Flu (shot only)
- Polio (shot only)
- Rabies
- Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines make proteins specific to the pathogen
- shorter manufacturing times
- because they do not contain a live virus, no risk of causing disease in the person getting vaccinated.
- COVID-19
- Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines use specific pieces of the germ—like its protein, sugar, or capsid (a casing around the germ), same benefits as other non-live virus vaccines and need for booster shots
- Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) disease
- Hepatitis B
- HPV (Human papillomavirus)
- Whooping cough (part of the DTaP combined vaccine)
- Pneumococcal disease
- Meningococcal disease
- Shingles
- Toxoid vaccines create immunity to the toxin produced by the germ.
- Live-attenuated vaccines create a strong and long-lasting immune response. Just 1 or 2 doses of most live vaccines can give you a lifetime of protection against a germ and the disease it causes.
- people with weakened immune systems may succumb to the live virus so shouldn’t take this kind of vaccine
- Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR combined vaccine)
- Rotavirus
- Smallpox
- Chickenpox
- Yellow fever
- Viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different virus, including influenza, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), measles virus, and adenovirus, which causes the common cold. Adenovirus is one of the viral vectors used in some COVID-19 vaccines being studied in clinical trials.
- Ebola
- Zika
- flu
- HIV
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), caused by HIV-1 infection, has been a severe threat to global human health since it was first reported in the early 1980s …
CRISPR/Cas system that has been used in HIV-1 gene therapy research…
Although the application of CRISPR/Cas gene editing in HIV-1 treatment has progressed and improved, there are still some inevitable defects…which may lead to uncontrolled adverse reactions.
Recently there has been a media onslaught of movies, television series, and books detailing an apocalyptic end to humanity after genetic engineering intended unleashes a virus that destroys the brain’s higher functioning areas, leaving only the brain stem drive to survive by sucking the life that is in the blood, infecting their victims in the process and turning them also into zombies.
Is this just entertaining science fiction, or could there be a basis of reality to this concept?
The future of vaccines
- DNA vaccines are easy and inexpensive to make—and they produce strong, long-term immunity.
- Recombinant vector vaccines (platform-based vaccines) act like a natural infection, so they’re especially good at teaching the immune system how to fight germs.
There is another future of vaccines.
Expanded requirements to get them.
- Hepatitis B
- Influenza – annually
- MMR – For healthcare personnel (HCP) born in 1957 or later without serologic evidence of immunity or prior vaccination
- Varicella (chickenpox) – For HCP who have no serologic proof of immunity, prior vaccination, or diagnosis or verification of a history of varicella or herpes zoster (shingles) by a healthcare provider
- Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis – Td or Tdap boosters every 10 years
- Meningococcal – Give both MenACWY and MenB to microbiologists who are routinely exposed to isolates of Neisseria meningitidis. As long as risk continues: boost with MenB after 1 year, then every 2–3 years thereafter; boost with MenACWY every 5 years. Give MenACWY and MenB IM.
Herd immunity (or community immunity) occurs when a high percentage of the community is immune to a disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness), making the spread of this disease from person to person unlikely. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as newborns and the immunocompromised) are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community…
In the United States, smallpox and polio have both been stamped out because of vaccination. However, there are certain groups of people who cannot get vaccinated and are vulnerable to disease: babies, pregnant women, and immunocompromised people, such as those receiving chemotherapy or organ transplants. For example, the earliest a baby can receive their first pertussis or whooping cough vaccine is at two months, and the earliest a child can receive their first measles vaccine is at one year, making them vulnerable to these diseases…
Herd immunity protects the most vulnerable members of our population. If enough people are vaccinated against dangerous diseases, those who are susceptible and cannot get vaccinated are protected because the germ will not be able to “find” those susceptible individuals.
When can we expect herd immunity for COVID-19?
COVID-19 is a very contagious disease. A large percentage of the population will need to be immune against the disease (through infection or vaccination) before herd immunity will be achieved. It is not known when that will happen, but it will depend on how many people get vaccinated…
On December 11, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for the first COVID-19 vaccine. [Prior to completing the full assessment of safety.] Currently there are three COVID-19 vaccines being administered in the U.S. With vaccines available, the focus has shifted to ensuring access to the vaccine, overcoming vaccine hesitancy, and educating members of the public about the vaccine. Vaccines have proven to be the safest, most cost-effective way to protect people from disease….
Measles was declared eliminated in 2000. Yet in 2019, there were 1,282 cases reported in the U.S. Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases still occur when too few individuals in a population are vaccinated. Outbreaks often begin with an imported case (someone who was travelling outside the U.S.) or person coming into contact with an unvaccinated individual or people. These infected people then expose unprotected people to the disease.
There are a number of reasons why people are unprotected…Some people may object because of religious reasons…
people who have the same beliefs about vaccinations frequently live in the same neighborhood, go to the same school, or attend the same religious services, so there could be potentially large groups of unvaccinated people close together. Once the percentage of vaccinated individuals in a population drops below the herd immunity threshold, an exposure to a contagious disease could spread very quickly throughout the community.
Our experience with COVID gives us insight into how a future, worse, epidemic will be dealt with by the government People who refuse to be vaccinated will be marked as a danger to the public welfare and will not be allowed access to public services like food stores, drug stores, doctors’ offices, hospitals, gas stations. Services that require home visits by technicians like electrical meter monitoring, internt access, or propane gas delivery will be cut off.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16-17)
Humans who mingle their DNA with that of fallen angels permanently alter their essential identification as a human being. Promised immortality, they achieve it, but with a dark twist. Instead of experiencing pleasures of eternal life they discover they are trapped in an horror of eternal death. They become, in essence, a zombie, “under the control of the bokor as a personal slave, having no will of its own.“
Kingdom Come 