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Using RNA and other gene tweaking techniques to knock out the p21 gene allowing for advanced healing
hello! im new to this lovely forum of biohacker's and the like and wondering if anybody belive's it to be possible to knock out a gene such as p21? p21 is a gene responsible for a few things though when there is a lack of it, or something that inhibits it it will allow for more advanced healing in mice eg, being able to regenerate punched ear holes, toes and very likely limbs to some extent (at the risk of having a cancer grow faster with it going unregulated, however it seems that having a lack of the gene/having it inhibited direct's more cells to apoptosis (cell suicide of negative cells) point being that there may be no need to worry about the advanced growth of cancerous cells due to this factor). my point being is that i was wondering if anyone would be able to remove or knock out that gene in a human for the same healing effect? would this be done through rna interfernace? a virus containing the mutation? crispr? point mutations? is this even possible?
another simple question : if this is possible, would this require a full blown lab or would there be some other way to do it such as having my dna sent in somehow or something idk (asking as i currently have no access to a lab or any way at all to test my theory, even though i really want to test it :/)
Some links / food for thought
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As a rule, dna is not something you test on yourself. Not right away. And especially not when your idea starts with "could increase cancer growth". To temporarily knock the gene out you could use microRNA or interfering RNA but it depends on the gene. You also need a way to get that bit of RNA to where it needs to go.I did a bit of reading on p21. Here's the big problem. It's an important proteinin regulating the cell cycle and could seriously mess things up if it was gone. Also it plays a large role in many other cellular processes and is also responsible for resistance to HIV. That said, it looks like there are already miRNA that interfear with it so if you wanted to temporarily knock it out, you could use one of the miRNA's already available. This is something you could test on a mouse model. If you built this into a cream or ointment, you could rub it on a wound and trigger faster healing in the area. You still run huge risks but it's doable.
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Just having something in a cream that could accelerate healing through temporarily knocking out this gene would be pretty huge in itself.
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chironex: how do you think a cream would work exactly? and just something i wanted to bring to your attention it has been tested in mice without any real negative side effects noted other then the risk of cancer spread (cancer is still a risk) (specifically a certain strain of mice, the mrl strain which has a increased regenerative factor while also being as big as rats) and a few scientest's have shown that removeing the p21 gene in mice results in the same healing factor as the mrl strain...... also just to add onto this while deleting the gene would most likely be a horrible long term idea, do you think having an epigenetic switch would be a good solution? such as downing a pill when injured to activate the healing factor for a few hours or even just for hospitals for the greviously injured having something to activate the switch? maybe even have it only activate under extreme cirumcstances where adrenaline is flowing to result in faster recovery?
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no real risk except cancer, is a rather large risk. Just saying. And I have some ideas as to how a cream could work but you need something worth putting in one first. So if we're gonna play with this gene, I like the idea of it being temporary. Less chance of a fuck up. So say you've got some molecule or system that knocks out this gene, you'll then need to turn it back on. So that's either 2 creams or something that'll decay on it's own. My first though is something like rna interference. Temporarily knock out the cells ability to produce the protein. When the block naturally decays the cell goes back to normal. there are more permanent version but the idea is the same. Interfere with the mRNA that's carrying the sequence for the protein and no protein is produced. But that'll last hours. If you want longer you need to make your interfering RNA into a plasmid and then insert that plasmid into the cells. This is more challenging, but concievably doable. But that means designing the plasmid, the interfering RNA and making sure it won't accidentally interfere with something else. If you can do that, making it into a cream is the easy part.
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when i said no real risk except cancer i meant there were no other risks besides the increase in cancerous spread if you have cancerous cells, aka no other risks besides the cancer. i really like this rna interference idea of yours and something that lasts for a few hours would be good for allowing it to heal but would also increase the risk of cancer by however long you have the gene inactive for.... do you think it would be possible to somehow make a epigenetic switch that activates to slow/stop the p21 gene working while active?, something that only activates under certain conditions and then stops and allows p21 to function again immediately?
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I think you're still missing the point. Cancer is not a small risk and should not be glossed over. Even if you can make this happen I'm not going anywhere near it until that risk is taken care of. The method I described is way safer and easir than trying to make an epigenetic change. Epigenetic changes are difficult and dangeours since if you fuck it up you turn on or off some other gene and you die. With mRNA interference it's nice and temporary and only affects the protein not the gene itself.
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No i completely realise the risk that having cancerous cells will have (it is absolutely something that should never be glossed over) however there is no way to just completely get rid of that risk, although we can lower it by having the gene switched off only during regeneration. however i did not realise the effects that an epigenetic change could have, i thought that an epigenetic change would be useful, eg only activated under times of stress (not realiseing how hard it would be to make said change/ the risks that come with that change) anyways, point being there is no way to completely get rid of the risk of cancerous cells affecting a person without the p21 gene but there are ways to limit that risk such as your idea of mRNA interference - also just wanting to bring to your attention some more questions - the lin28a gene is a safer alternative option (when altered) to the p21 gene bringing about similar regenerative affects however it only works in younger organism's, do you about anything that would be able to trick the body into thinking it's younger than it is so that the gene when activated would allow for advanced regeneration? - is there any place you know of that sells/produces lab equipment used in mrna? or would i have to go to a proper lab to do it ? - myostatin is another potential gene for gene manipulation as when turned off it stops inhibiting muscle growth (to a point eg your muscles won't just explode out of your body but it does allow for the growth of greater muscle mass) are there any known risk's with turning this gene off?/ihibiting it?. sorry for all the annoying questions
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