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Gene edits to ‘CRISPR babies’ might have shortened their life expectancy

Study of almost half a million people links mutation that protects against HIV infection to an earlier death.
  1. Sara Reardon
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The scientist who edited the genomes of twin girls in an attempt to make them resistant to HIV might have inadvertently shortened their life expectancy. People with two disabled copies of the CCR5 gene — the version that protects against HIV infection — are 21% more likely to die before the age of 76 than are people with at least one working copy of the gene, according to a study1 published on 3 June in Nature Medicine. The reason for the discrepancy is unknown.

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Nature 570, 16-17 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01739-w

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 04 June 2019: This story originally said that 11% of the UK population carries two copies of a CCR5 mutation. In fact, that figure applies to people who carry at least one copy of the mutation.

References

  1. Wei, X. & Nielsen, R. Nature Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0459-6 (2019).

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  2. Falcon, A. et al. J. Gen. Virol. 96, 2074–2078 (2015).

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  4. Joy, M. T. et al. Cell. 176, 1143-1157 (2019).

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