Hi Raj, I don't know who this is aimed at. If it is aimed to members of a legislative body> I think it is over optimistic to think that legislators will understand what you are saying.These people are not from academia , they need things written at a 6th grade level. I think the piece is well put together and explains the problem well but i think it will go ovewr the heads of legislators and people like George W used some >of her sentences and phrases in this article. I thank her profusely for her >honesty and for letting me use her catchy phrases generously in this >article. > I hope you enjoy reading this article and find it useful. > Raj >[log in to unmask] > PS: I had to split this into two parts to be accepted by the Parkinsons >list serve. >************** > > STEM CELLS AND CLONING: FACT AND FICTION - YOU BE THE >JUDGE > > >Dr. R. Rajaraman > > "Out there on the political arena," lines have been drawn on the >battleground, "sides have been taken" for and against research on stem cells >and cloning, arguments have been put forward, "rounds after rounds have been >fired, and causalities sustained by both sides." However, in my view, >everything is still obscured by a thick veil of smoke that fills the air and >the public is all but confused as to what is going on. In this atmosphere >of confusion and misconception, it is almost impossible for the public to >think straight and contribute meaningfully to the ongoing dialogue on this >important issue. A good appreciation of the concepts and the controversies >surrounding the issues by well-informed public is necessary for a rational >and balanced outcome of these deliberations, because it is their future well >being that will be affected by the decisions that are being hastily made on >these issues today both by the governments of the United States of America >and Canada. The reasons for this confusion, and the resulting condemnation >of stem cell research outright as an act of crime against humanity are the >misperception and misinterpretation of the language, thoughtless statements >by some overzealous publicity-seeking, irresponsible scientists, and the >media hype and frenzy that has been built around the words "cloning" and >"stem cells" - words that ignite and incite fierce and fervent reactions >from both the pro-life and the pro-stem cell camps. In this article, I >attempt to clarify some confusions, and put in perspective the different >terms, what does them really mean, what can they do for us, what can we do >with them, why they are important, and how we move forward from this >stalemate for the betterment of humanity. > > I am a 69-year-old father of two sons, and a grand father if three smart >kids, and live in Halifax, NS. , Canada. I am a Hindu hailing from South >India and living in North America since 1965. I am a retired professor and >my field of specialization is cancer cell biology. The community of >Parkinson's Disease (PD) knows me to some extent. I am suffering from two >kinds of movement disorders, i.e., Essential Tremor (ET) characterized by >action tremor and PD characterized by resting tremor for the past 40 years >and of late my symptoms of PD have become more pronounced. Even though I >realize now in hindsight that I have been having some symptoms of PD since >my early thirties, I was diagnosed with PD only about four years ago. The >news threw me into a state of shock and I promptly went into a denial phase >that lasted for almost a year. I could have simply accepted the verdict and >take the drugs prescribed for me and disappear in thin air, forgotten by the >community and the society at large and accept what the fate would throw at >me. But, I decided to get a second opinion for my diagnosis, which led me >to some unpleasant experience. Therefore, I decided to learn everything >that I possibly can about this disease that creeps on you slowly but surely. >I have now learned to "act like a tiger and think like a fox" in order to >survive the disease and enjoy life at the same time. > >WHAT IS PARKINSON'S DISEASE? > What I found out about the ravages of the PD and the problems caused by >current treatments available for PD were not very encouraging at all. PD is >a neurodegenerative disease affecting 2% of the people above 60 years old. >However, this disease also affects people in the very young age, often as >early as the 20s and thirties, crippling the useful life span of most of >these patients. About 10% of PD patients fall in this category. PD >patients experience progressively reduced capacity to move, rigidity of the >hands and legs, tremors, loss of a voice, speech impediment, loss of >postural instability, inability to swallow, loss of sleep and regularity, >inability to write, and eventually become a vegetable and a burden to >themselves, their family and the society. PD is caused by progressive >degeneration of neurons that produce a chemical called dopamine, which is >important for movement and the maintenance of the overall normal affairs of >our nervous system, which is taking care of important functions like >movement of muscle involved in smiling, speaking, swallowing, writing, >walking, maintaining a vertical posture, blood pressure etc. We still do >not know what causes the degeneration of these neurons. It could be a >repercussion of some post-viral infection phenomenon, environmental toxins, >in addition to genetic susceptibility. Most disturbingly, there is >currently no consensus of opinion if it is one disease with a variation or >two different diseases, when one develops PD symptoms on top of the chronic >symptoms of ET. At present, there is no cure for PD. Most of the drugs >for PD have only temporary symptomatic relief (lasting for about 3 hours) >and have their own unwanted side effects in the long run. And in some >unfortunate individuals, these drugs don't have even that transient >beneficial effect and they are slowly progressing toward a miserable life >with no body movement, not being able to swallow or even to talk, especially >in their old age. One has the last resort of a radical Deep Brain Surgery >(DBS) (literally boring holes in the brain to implant electrodes deep in the >center of the brain), which sounds almost barbaric, nevertheless scientific, >is risky and highly expensive (around US$ 60,000) and even then, there is no >guarantee that the problems will be solved. > > One of the major hopes for people like us relies on the future discoveries >based on stem cell research. If the current trend of blindly condemning all >types of stem cell research continues, you will be condemning all of us to a >slow and miserable death. "PD slowly robs its victims of the ability to >move properly and eventually we won't be able to move at all. About 30% of >us develop dementia, we are three times more likely to develop Alzheimer's >and we cannot speak well or swallow our food. We have to take about 25 >pills / day costing about $12,000 or more / year, yet have increasing >difficulty controlling the problems. These medications do nothing to slow >down the progression of the disease." Some that do, have extreme side >effects and one would wonder which is worse: to suffer through the ravages >of the disease or the side effects of the drug. "In time these drugs fail >us and will leave us totally disabled. We will leave this (active) world >and enter into a twilight world of immobility, encased in our bodies as in >tombs, able to think but not speak, understand but not able to communicate. >Death will inevitably follow, and by then it may not be unwelcome." > > I cannot overemphasize the importance of looking at the issues and >facts on stem cells and cloning with a clear understanding of the >consequences of our actions we take today. It would become apparent that >medical research has finally given us a ray of hope in stem cell research, >which has the potential to ultimately give us a unique opportunity, without >compromising our religious beliefs, and moral and ethical responsibilities, >to be able give reassurance to several thousands of our fellow PWPs (People >With Parkinson's). We have gotten to know them in person or through the >internet, looking at them as if living in a parallel universe, watching our >slow downward progression, sharing our emotions and fears, and seeking >strength, consolation, and companionship in our daily efforts to find the >meaning of life. It is thought that PD is one of the first diseases to be >amenable for stem cell-mediated regenerative therapy. We know the specific >neuronal cell type whose loss causes this disease. Several laboratories >have successfully produced dopamine-synthesizing neuronal cells fro >embryonic stem cells. After introducing a gene Nurr1 into mouse embryo stem >cells, and transplanting these cells into the rat brain, they differentiated >into dopamine producing neuronal cells, that resulted in the alleviation of >PD symptoms. A number of strategies are in development to convert human >stem cells into dopamine producing neurons. Stem cell research, if allowed >to continue without impediments and supported by ample funding, has the >potential to bring into reality the field of regenerative medicine within >the next decade or two. In addition to PD, the concept of regenerative >medicine has the promise and potential to cure to various defects and >ailments including aging, cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, spinal >cord injuries, autoimmune diseases, developmental defects, and several >degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, and other pathological conditions >as well for being useful in screening new drugs, toxins, and in >understanding and correcting birth defects, just to mention a few. Thus the >impressive and highly promising potential of therapeutic stem cell research >is likely to benefit not only the PD patients, but more than 75% of humanity >at large. > > Without understanding the difference between what these words really mean >and what they are perceived to mean, the policy makers and the public run >the risk of curtailing research that looks highly promising to lead to >effective treatments and even cures for various debilitating diseases, for >which there is no cure available currently. Let us look at the so called >scary words, why are they scary and what do they really mean. > > >CLONING: > Cloning is the process of making several copies of a molecule, a cell or an >organism. The process of cloning is very common, when you culture cells for >studying different aspects of a population of cells. It would make sense to >study, for example, the biochemical properties of a normal and a tumor cell. >One may want to have identical cells in each cell population for comparative >studies. Thus, cloning is a procedure very useful for 'manufacturing' large >population of identical cells. > > These principles and procedures have attained high economic importance in >the field of plant propagation. One can clone a plant with any desired >property, e.g., beautiful flowers, fragrance, a new mutant variety that >cannot be sexually reproduced, high yields of a given crop, disease >resistance etc., by culturing individual cells and raising the whole plant >from a single cell in a test tube and potting the individual plants >separately after it reaches a healthy stage in a culture flask. > > When molecular biology bloomed as a separate science in the past two >decades, people made several copies of a piece of DNA containing a gene, >and thus molecular cloning became a very powerful tool in the study of the >function of gene products. All types of genes that are responsible for the >growth of cancer and genes that inhibit growth of cancer have been cloned >for various diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic purposes. Similarly, >studies of genes that have undergone changes (mutations) causing various >diseases are being cloned in order to understand their modes of action by >themselves or their interaction with other gene products. These studies >form the basic tenet of modern molecular medicine. > Cloning organisms is also not new. In the late 1800's, Hans Dreish created >the first cloned sea urchins, by taking the developing embryo and splitting >it into two halves, forming two identical sea urchins. This is what happens >accidentally in humans that results in what we call identical maternal >twins. In 1914, Hans Spemann showed that the nucleus from a 16 cell newt >embryo, when placed into a fresh enucleated egg, developed into an adult >newt. This probably was the first nuclear transplantation experiment that >resulted in a cloned organism. However, the nucleus in this case also >comes from an embryonic cell, much different from the current technology of >adult somatic cell nuclear transplantation or SCNT (see below). In the >early 1950s, Dr. F.C. Steward of Cornell University cloned thousands of >carrot plants. Since then, carrots, tomatoes, fruit flies, and numerous >other plants and animals have been cloned. However, in the year 1963, Dr. >J.B.S. Haldane introduced the word 'clone' for the processes of making >identical copies of organisms. In 1993, Dr. Jerry Hall and Dr. Robert >Stillman starting with seventeen 2- 8- cell stage human embryos produced 48 >different human embryos. This saw the beginning of ethical challenge to >such studies. In 1996, Dr. Ian Wilmut in Scotland produced the first closed >mammal, Dolly, by adult nucleus transplantation into an egg from which the >nucleus has been previously removed (SCNT). One would think that nobody in >the right mind would even attempt at cloning humans, let alone claiming they >have done it. Think again! On Aug 7, 2001 came the irresponsible >announcements of Dr. Panos Zavos of Kentucky and Dr. Severino Antinori of >Italy that they plan to impregnate 200 women volunteers with cloned human >embryos by November, 2001. Dr. Richard Seed, a physicist, wanted to >establish a laboratory solely for the purpose of cloning humans. Time >magazine (Feb 19, 2001) sensationalized the issue by stating, "Human >cloning is closer than you think!" To make things worse, we are all aware >of the recent claims by the Bahamas-based company called Clonaid that they >have successfully cloned human babies, without producing any evidence. I >agree, "Human lives, souls and dignity are at stake!" if we do not do >anything about this issue. > > Apart from the ethical and moral aspects of the issue, technologically it >is not feasible as yet to safely clone human beings. It was recently >reported that for every successful animal clone, there have been about 300 >fetal deaths. Fetal casualties of this order will be almost certain to >happen when anybody attempts at cloning humans with the current technology >and, for sure, these deaths would be equivalent to cold-blooded murder. In >addition, other issues including genetic (e.g., telomere erosion - the lost >of a small piece of DNA from the end of chromosomes when we age) and >epigenetic modifications (e.g. imprinting, changes in the gene expression >pattern (not gene mutation) that are induced permanently during development) >occur in the embryos by handling procedures and other unknown factors, have >not yet been understood. Irrespective of the technical feasibility, simply >based on the moral and ethical reasons, human reproductive cloning should be >permanently banned forthwith. > >STEM CELLS: > Stem cells have the unique potential to maintain themselves without >undergoing any genetic change and they also can differentiate into different >cell types that are found in our body. They can be classified into two >different types based on their origin from the embryo or from adult tissues. >(Please see www.nih.gov/new/stemcell/primer.htm for additional info.) > > The Embryonic Stem cells or ES cells are obtained from the inner mass >cells at the 4-5 day old developing embryonic stage called the "blastocyst" >(a spherical early embryonic stage with central mass of 30 embryonic cells >enclosed within spherical envelope of a single layer of cells; for a nice >picture of blastocyst check at >www.advancedfertility.com/blastocystimages.htm ). ES cells are the >undifferentiated, embryonic cells, which have the potential to multiply into >two cells, of which one daughter cell will be destined to maintain >population of stem cells by further division without undergoing any changes, >while the other daughter cell can multiply with the potential to >differentiate into different type of cells in our body, e.g., skin cells, >brain cells, heart cells, pancreatic cell, blood cell etc., if given the >right kind of stimulus from the microenvironment. For this reason, these >are called pluripotent stem cells, meaning they can differentiate into any >type of cells given the right stimulus. For example, the human body has at >least about 200 different types of cells, just as many different kinds of >cancers, we know, the humans can suffer from. All these different types of >mature or fully differentiated cells in the adult human body, have been >derived from these stem cells. Therefore, they provide a potential source >of different tissue and cell types for replacement in diseases caused by >non-functional or destroyed native cell types. Simplest procedure to >culture pluripotent stem cells is to extract them from the early embryo >before these cells start their journey towards differentiation into >different cell types. Thus, the early embryo possesses truly pluripotent >cells that can give rise to all cell types present in the embryo and the >adult. > (CONTINUED IN PART II) > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] >In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn