Genetic 'magic bullet' cures have proven a 'false dawn'

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Genetic *magic bullet* cures have proven a *false dawn*

By Richard Alleyne and Kate Devlin

Daily Telegraph, 21 April 2009

_http://tiny.cc/8px8I_ (http://tiny.cc/8px8I)

 

*Leading scientist Prof Steve Jones has claimed that the hope that genetic

research could provide a cure for a host of common illnesses has proved a

**false dawn**.

Prof Jones, a geneticist, said the belief that a few genes held the key to

ridding the world of conditions such as cancer and diabetes had proved to

be **plain wrong**.

In most cases, hundreds of genes are responsible, and often they have less

effect than other factors such as diet, lifestyle and the environment.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph today, the academic and author called for a

complete overhaul of the " scattergun " approach to genetic research, which

is backed by millions of pounds in funding by governments and medical

charities such as the Wellcome Trust.

Prof Jones said he was one of a number of **renegade** scientists who were

beginning to question the research. **It*s not done to kill the goose that

lays the golden eggs, nor to bite the hand that feeds you - nor, in my own

profession, to criticise the research programme of the Wellcome Trust, an

enormously rich charity that paid much of the bill to read the message

written in human DNA.**

**Not done, perhaps: but a pack of renegade biologists has turned on that

source of nutrition to claim that what it is doing is welcome, but plain

wrong.**

**We thought it [genetic research] was going to change our lives but that

has turned out to be a false dawn.**

Prof Jones, who does not name the other scientists, said the idea that the

research would be a **cure all** for many common illnesses such as cancer

and diabetes had led scientists down a **blind alley** and they must now

rethink their approach.

His intervention is likely to trigger a debate into the usefulness of

genetic research and on whether the hundreds of millions invested would be

better spent elsewhere.

Prof Jones, the head of the biology department at University College

London, said there had been **too much optimism** surrounding research into

genes and that there was a danger it had become **largely unfounded**. **Just

a couple of years ago, there was real optimism that a new era of

understanding was around the corner,** he said. **That did not last long, for

hubris

has been replaced with concern.**

Prof Jones added: **Of course there have been some successes, but it is

the *cure all* aspect of the work that has proved unfounded. **

**It is the nature of the business that occasionally you go down the wrong

road and that pretty much is what looks like has happened now.**

Hundreds of millions of pounds was pumped into research into genetics

after scientists mapped the human genome in 2003 and there were some early

successes with rare inherited diseases such as haemophilia. Scientists embarked

on a search for rogue genes responsible for just about every modern

malady, hoping such conditions could be blamed on a small set of genes - which

could then lead to a cure.

But the more they investigated, the more complicated they realised finding

a cure would be. Many individual genes say little about the real risk of

illness, and they found diet and the environment had a significant influence

on the development of disease.

Even when scientists have identified genes linked to conditions such as

diabetes and Crohn*s disease they have discovered that they account for less

than 10 per cent of inherited influence.

Prof Jones said it may be time to **stop throwing good money after bad**.

**Genetics has been a series of revolutions of diminished expectations.

It doesn't look very optimistic,** he said.

**We have wandered into a blind alley and it might be better that we come

out of it and start again.**

However, Prof Marcus Pembrey, a clinical geneticist and chairman of the

Progress Education Trust, a think tank on genetics, denied the research **was

a waste of time or money**. **There is nothing wrong with genetic

research and it had some breakthroughs but it has not turned out to be the

panacea

that it was first hoped,** he said.

Prof Pembrey said the focus of research should be on studying human genes

and how they are affected by and interact with the environment - especially

when people are young.

Prof George Ebers, a professor of clinical neurology at Oxford University

and an expert on genes, said: **There has been disappointment in this

field.

**The expectation was that there would be a lot of important things found

and that has not panned out. However, there were small things uncovered

which do have important significance. One gene found for multiple sclerosis,

for instance, does not give you the disease but it does tell us more about

how it is caused in the body. **

**These are things we would not know had we not gone through this

process.**

Prof John Burn, a professor of clinical genetics at the University of

Newcastle, said genetic research into colon cancer had been a success but it

was **the exception that proved the rule**.

**People have now a very simplistic leap to the idea that everything that

is genetic can be traced back to a simple genetic mistake,** Prof Burn

said.

**We have seen already with the example of height that yes, there are

genes that influence how tall someone is but there is also environment and

diet.**

**Very large studies have shown that a two per cent variation in height

can be controlled by 17 different genes. But we must not throw the baby out

with the bathwater. **

**Although genetic disorders are rare, with more than 6,000 different

genetic disorders, they affect an awful lot of people.**

Prof Peter Donnelly, director of the Wellcome Trust Case Control

Consortium, which funds a number of genetic studies, said: **The pace of genetic

findings is changing at an immense rate and we are now able to analyse human

variation in health and disease on a scale unimaginable even just a few years

ago.

**It may be years - decades, even - before this knowledge is translated

into new treatments, but such research is essential if we are to make

progress.**

Prof Jones also gave warning that thousands of people were **wasting their

money** on genetic tests - an industry that is to be examined by The

Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

The Nuffield Council has already said that expensive private health

**MoTs**, including the use of DNA profiles to predict the risk of developing

deadly diseases, could be doing **more harm than good**.

But it is the main thrust of Prof Jones* argument that has sparked debate

among his fellow scientists.

Prof Jones said: **Whatever the panjandrums of science decide to do with

their Everest of cash, it is time to turn to one of the few genetical

proverbs, for their mountain has laboured and brought forth not much more than a

mouse. **

**And what was that adage about throwing good money after bad?**

Hippocrates once said **Give me a fever and I can cure the child**. By

understanding that a simple fever is a symptom rather than a condition

orillness in itself, you soon come to realise that it is an ally and notan

enemy.

Fevers are the first sign that your child*s immune symptom isfunctioning as

it should. By increasing core body temperature, fevers enable the immune

system to swing into action, indicating the body*s defences are fighting an

infection and consequent temperature fluctuations indicate how the body is

coping. - Natural Parenting.