Genetically Modified Organisms: a threat or a saviour to modern day civilisation?

Throughout human history, civilisations have constantly lived off fertile land where community growth was fuelled by the availability of ample resources. In each case, as the civilization grew, a point was reached where resources were used faster than they could be replenished. If the society continued to grow, producing a population "overshoot," one or more essential resources eventually disappeared, leading to economic and societal collapse.

One of the solutions is to produce animals or crops which are sustainable, resistant to disease, grow faster, and have a higher quantity of food products. This is only achievable through genetic modification. A genetically modified organism (GMO) is a life form i.e. organism, who’s genetic material has been changed in any way, using genetic engineering techniques. These genetic engineering techniques are known as “recombinant DNA technology”.

Recombinant DNA technology takes advantage of the fact that every living organism on this planet shares the same genetic code. Each organism’s genetic code comprises of DNA of the same chemical structure. The DNA translates into proteins which are important for various life dependent functions in each organism. A change in the DNA results in a different protein produced all together. Since all organisms share the same form of genetic code, theoretically speaking, any gene can be moved from one organism to another resulting in the production of new proteins, or a new property (such as disease resistance). Many researchers around the globe view this technology as a tool that can help the growing modern human civilization in many ways.

Our current human population has already overgrown our planet's capacity. We are rapidly depleting the world's resources, unwittingly pushing thousands of living species into extinction every year, polluting the soil, oceans and atmosphere, chopping down and burning the planet's forests for food agriculture, causing irreversible climatic change and destroying the agricultural potential of huge tracts of land. Just as has been documented for many past civilizations, the inevitable consequences of our current lifestyles will be societal collapse accompanied by tremendous human suffering. The difference between past civilizations and ours is that this time, resource depletion is occurring on a global scale. This global depletion is heightened by the change from food farming to biofuel farming in the USA, leading to a spike in food prices, and less food available for a growing population. During the construction of this article, the current world population was 6,827,935,687 and is growing digit by digit every minute. Out of this figure, 1.02 billion people go hungry every day. With climate change linked with modern man’s environmentally demanding lifestyle, it is inevitable that this figure of starvation will grow and spread through the global population like a disease. The answer to this solution is GMOs. Plants can be “redesigned” to increase yields by 80%, which means that crop production is almost double than that of Non-GMO yields. This results in almost twice as many people being fed. Such crops would be of huge benefit to countries struck by famine caused by environmental factors such as drought. Crops have been developed which can grow in conditions where water supply is short. These drought resistance crops can do wonders for a community struck by drought.

Gene technology is seen as controversial, especially in Europe. In recent polls conducted by the European Commission, a majority of consumers regard gene technology with hesitation, approximately one half of consumers are able to accept gene technology, particularly when benefits for consumers and for the environment can be linked to GMO products. Europe has a very reserved and negative outlook on GMO foods, which follow the rule of thumb to avoid anything that can pose a risk to health, disregarding clear scientific evidence that GMOs are not a health or environmental hazard in any way. Many environmentalists fear that the genes from the GM plants can “flow” into neighboring non GM plants, this is incorrect as it is a well known scientific fact that genes cannot “infect” or “flow” other plants or consumers of the end food product.

On the contrary to consumer beliefs that GM plants are dangerous to eat and can damage the health, quite a few plants have been developed which produce vital minerals and vitamins, other plants produce oral vaccinations against cholera, Escherichia coli, Helicobacter pylori  and the West Nile virus. In regards to the vitamin and mineral producing plants, one such plant which has been used is the tomato plant. Usually the colour of the tomato fruit is between an orange and a red colour. However, the plant genes have been manipulated to produce a berry like deep red to almost wine colour. This colour is not produced for aesthetic purposes. The deep colour of the GM tomato is due to the production of anthocyanins, which is a class of pigments produced by berries. Anthocyanins have been associated with protections against a broad range of human diseases. Unfortunately, most commonly eaten fruits and vegetables do not contain enough anthocyanins to promote any benefits to health. The anthocyanin producing tomato increases the life span of mice significantly.

Out of all of the topics in science that have caught the public eye, genetic modification and gene technology is by far the most controversial and the most misunderstood. Like anything else, as a consumer one would be careful that they’re getting they are getting their money’s worth, the product is safe to use, and is environmentally friendly. When researching a product a lot of the pros and cons are weighed, before choosing a product and the consumer is allowed to make their own decision. In that sense, the people of Europe and the European Commission is entitled to free choice and decision on whether the growth of GM plants in Europe should be banned or allowed. However, each decision so far has been biased and has been made without researching the core scientific facts of the pure benefits that GM foods can deliver to human health and the environment. The world’s population is increasing day by day, and as a global community we must take great strides towards food development in order to prevent the ill fates that previous civilizations have faced.

The Cancer Conundrum

We all know the facts about cancer, well most of them. It has been drilled into us on how to avoid cancer by avoiding smoking or cigarette smoke, a healthy diet, regular excercise and low stress. Generally it is seen that people who are immuno-deficient, i.e. have a weak immune system are more prone to get cancer. Now this fact is a bitter one to bite, but it is sadly true - even the healthiest of people, regardless of lifestyle, are prone to get cancer. That means that for each and every person in the world, there is a probability that they may get cancer at some stage in life. Having a family history of cancer increases the risk of the descendents to get it too, no matter how healthy they may be. It truely is depressing to think about it.

According to WHO (the World Health Organisation), cancer is the modern pandemic in the developed world, as it is the highest cause of mortality and morbidity with breast, colon and liver cancer being among the top ten causes of death in high income countries. So why is this so? Do people in developing countries have a healthier lifestyle than those in developed countries? Do they have less stress? Actually, in developing countries, the highest cause of death is infections, which supersedes cancer on the "list". In developed, high income countries, many people can afford to treat infections readily.

Cancer generally develops by mutation in the cell, which prevents it from undergoing "apoptosis", which means programmed cell death. Generally, a healthy immune system recognises these cells can eliminates them effectively before they cause too much trouble. However, the cancer cells can effectively avoid the immune system through several mechanisms such as producing metabolites and compounds which deregulate the immune system towards the tumour, allowing for proliferation. There are many more proposed mechanisms of how tumours escape immunity and this is a current area of intense research which I would love to talk about, but I'll save this for another entry.

Current treatments for cancer include chemotherapy along with the taking of chemotherapy drugs such as paclitaxel. This treatment is often used in order to prevent cell division, as cancer cells or tumour cells divide continuously and these cells have turned off the option for cell death or apoptosis. By opting for chemotherapy along with chemotherapy drugs, not only are you preventing the cell division of cancer cells, but also all the cells of the body which is the reason why cancer patients lose hair, have a weakened immune system, and are generally weak overall. It is arguable that the mortality of cancer is high due to the treatment and that the treatment kills the patient, not the cancer. Clearly, chemotherapy is not ideal, as it reduces the quality of life for patients along with the chance that chemotherapy may work, or not work.

Many researchers are focusing on new areas of treatment, known as "immunotherapy". In immunotherapy, the ideal drug would strengthen the immune system and allow for it to recognise the cancer cells rather than avoiding it. Such would be the example of indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase (IDO), which is an enzyme produced by most of the cells in the human body, and it is produced in minimal amounts. It is also produced in placental tissue, during pregnancy and this weakens the immune system, preventing it from attacking the fetus, allowing the fetus to grow and develop. This is one of the reasons why pregnant women have weak immunity. IDO is also produced in high amounts by tumour cells, weakening the immune system against it, preventing elimination. By administrating an "analog" (a compound in which one or more atoms have been replaced with different atoms) of IDO, which is methyl-L-tryptophan to patients along with chemotherapy drugs like paclitaxel may treat cancer. This is just one example of how immunotherapy could be used against cancer cells, and there are many more.

Cancer biology has taken great strides towards success in the recent past, with increasing knowledge, research and dedication worldwide, maybe, just maybe can cancer no longer be deemed "uncurable".